Liberal government, 1905–1915

With the fall of Arthur Balfour's Conservative government in the United Kingdom in December 1905, the Liberals under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman were called in to form a government. In the subsequent election, the Liberals won an enormous majority.[1] Campbell-Bannerman was succeeded as prime minister by H. H. Asquith in 1908.[2]

The Liberal government was supported by 29 Labour Party MPs. Chancellor David Lloyd George crafted the People's Budget and introduced a great deal of social legislation,[3] such as old age pensions and unemployment insurance for a significant part of the working population. For many working people, for whom in old age the threat of the workhouse was very real, these represented a very significant change. Equally groundbreaking was the Parliament Act 1911 which:

• Removed the law-making veto from the House of Lords thus rendering it constitutionally most expedient to run any future government from the House of Commons
• Enshrined into law the previous convention, which the Lords had broken in 1909, that the Lords may not reject Money Bills
• Cut the length of Parliaments from seven years to five

Many of the members of Asquith's cabinet, however, opposed the social measures promulgated by leading figures such as Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. This resistance was arguably a reflection of the extent to which many Liberals still adhered to the Party's Gladstonian, classical liberal tradition in spite of the growth of the "New Liberalism". Morley was opposed to both old-age pensions and the provisions of the Trade Boards Act of 1909, while Runciman was against the eight-hour day for miners and compensation for workers. Burns, Bryce, Loreburn, and W.S. Robson were opposed to land reform, insurance, and the feeding of schoolchildren,[4] while several cabinet members[5] (such as Crewe,[6] Fitzmaurice,[7] Harcourt,[8] and McKenna[9]) were critical of Lloyd George's progressive "People's Budget." Nevertheless, according to Neil Smith, the majority of the members of the Edwardian Liberal Cabinets were supportive of social reform and social progress.[10] As noted by one study,

They (the Liberal Cabinet members) sought to respond to the discontent of the electorate by using the existing structure of government to correct the ills of society through innovative legislation. Two-thirds of the Liberal candidates, including Edwin Montagu, had pledged support for such measures during the campaign. While their support was often expressed in general terms, their intent was clear: Social and economic reform must be the first order of the new government.[11]

Although the government lost a great deal of support by the two general elections of 1910, they managed to hold on by dint of support from the Irish Parliamentary Party. After early mismanagement during the First World War, particularly the failure of the Dardanelles Campaign, Asquith was forced to bring the Unionists into the government in a coalition.[12]

Members of the cabinet are in bold face.

Notes

• Edwardian era
• List of British governments

• Blewett, Neal. Peers, the Parties and the People: General Elections of 1910 (1972).
• Brooks, David. The Age of Upheaval: Edwardian Politics, 1899-1914 (1995)
• Butler, David and Gareth Butler. Twentieth Century British Political Facts, 1900–2000. (St. Martin's, 2000)
• Cross, Colin. The Liberals in Power, 1905-1914 (1963) online
• Daglish, N. D. "A 'difficult and somewhat thankless task': politics, religion and the Education Bill of 1908." Journal of educational administration and history 31.1 (1999): 19–35.
• Gilbert, Bentley Brinkerhoff. "David Lloyd George: Land, The Budget, and Social Reform." American Historical Review 81.5 (1976): 1058–1066.
• Gilbert, Bentley B. "David Lloyd George: the reform of British landholding and the budget of 1914." Historical Journal 21.1 (1978): 117–141.
• Grigg, John. Lloyd George: The People's Champion, 1902–1911 (1978). biography
• Halévy, Elie. History of the English People, 1905-1914 (1934), 686pp. a major political history
• Hay, James Roy. Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906–14 (1975) 78pp online
• Jenkins, Roy. Asquith: portrait of a man and an era (1964)
• Quinault, Roland. "Asquith's Liberalism." History 77.249 (1992): 33–49.
• Russell, A. K. Liberal landslide : the general election of 1906 (1973).
• Searle, G. R. A New England?: peace and war, 1886–1918 (Oxford UP, 2004), wide-ranging scholarly survey, 952 pp.