The Crushing Defeat Suffered by the Conservative Party in the 1906 General Slection

The Crushing Defeat Suffered by the Conservative Party in the 1906 General Slection

In the later stages of the 19th century it is clear that the

Conservative’s were the dominant political party in Britain, but they

appear to be ‘crushed’ in the 1906 general election only gaining 156

seats to the liberal party’s 399. There are clear reasons during this

period to why this dramatic change in public support happened. These

appear mainly to be due to conservative bills and what seems to be

poor leadership from Campbell Bannerman who appears a weak he is a

leader.

Tariff reform was an apparent reason for many of the electorate to

switch their political stance in 1903. Tariff reforms isolated most of

the working class because the prices of basic foods were raised, this

meant that poorer people could not afford to pay for basic foods due

to these extra prices and so many working class votes are lost due to

this reform. Furthermore the party is clearly split over this issue;

with chamberlain (who was in charge of the empire) adamant that tariff

reforms were needed to strengthen the empire and C.T. Ritchie

(Chancellor of the Exchequer) who makes it clear that he believes an

imperial tariff is not needed. This split shows to the electorate a

side of the conservatives that they are not used to seeing and so to

the electorate this split had a massive impact as the conservatives

had always appeared united ‘It was clear that all unity in government

had been lost much for Balfour’s skill he managed to ward off the

disintegration of his cabinet’ (wood), This looses the conservatives

some of their public support and helps in the ‘crushing’ defeat

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...e total with the liberals gaining 49% of all votes whereas

the conservatives got 44% of the votes, Knowing these further

statistics it is clear that the original statement of a ‘crushing

defeat’ is in reality not crushing at all but quite close in vote

totals. In addition the liberals do gain a lot of ground on the

conservatives between 1900 and 1906 this is largely to do with the

conservatives showing no compassion for the working classes, and the

unstable leadership of Arthur Balfour, But The liberals are very good

at making the conservatives look worse and so the 1906 general

election was as much to do with the strength of the liberals as the

poor leadership of Balfour.

Bibliography

Britain 1890-1939 – Rosemary Rees

British history for as level

Modern history revised

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