The Education Act was responsible for the landslide victory because the Liberals had gained a great deal of support from the Non-Conformist. In 1902 the Education Act, Balfour’s, ministry which was done to improve education. This upset the non-conformists because it saw schools receiving assistance from rates. This had angered the non-conformists because they had always objected to what they saw as privileges of the Church of England. This had led to the loss of support to the Tories.
The Licensing Act was another factor, which led to the Liberal election victory. The Licensing Act of 1904 led to every public house had to have a license or the pubs were being closed. Again the non-conformists were angered because it was their pubs being closed. Many workers had disagreed, and of the few privileges they had lost. Also because they were very loyal to the Tories they were even angrier at the fact of the Workman Act of 1905. Again the Tories were losing votes because many of them had now increased.
The Taff Vale case was another factor this was were Balfour had managed to alienate the working class. The railway servants saw the effective of banning strikes and this clearly upset the workers as it deprived them of value means of protest against poor working conditions and inadequate pay. Taff Vale sued to restrain any action may hamper business and for damages already caused. This went to the high courts and then to the House of Lords. The employees were told to pay 23,000 and also there was a Trade Dispute Act. The workers felt that Balfour was behind the decision but they were wrong this was the most damaging to Balfour and his party and with the rapid rise of the Trade unions it was only a matter of time for them to turn against the conservatives.
With the Taff Vale case the workers were also upset by the Chinese slavery. The use of Chinese workers had become a major scandal, because this was seen as an attack on jobs for white British workers. The slaves were housed in camps and suffered poor living and working conditions. This angered the Trade Unions and the public because they were upset that the idea of the Tories could be adopted in Britain. This had an affect on the Tories workers felt that if this were accepted then they would be out of jobs. The Tories were highly insensitive and yet it showed that they hadn’t accepted public opinion.
However unpopular the Tories may have become over the Boer War, Tory reforms Taff Vale and the Chinese slavery this still would have little influence on the Tories because they still had power in government but that would soon change. Joseph Chamberlain in 1903 had adopted Tariff Reform. His idea was that Britain would change tariffs {taxes} on all imports, but imports from British colonies and dominions to no or lower tariffs. In this way it would provide finance for social reform and promote imperial preference but this was unpopular amongst the Tory party. Balfour had attempted to take the middle course on the reform, which had resulted against the party leading them to spilt. The spilt was so bad that it had led him to resign. The whole issue on tariff reform worked against the conservatives had helped the liberals to unite. The consequence saw a rise in turnout for the Liberals, the Liberals anti Tariff campaign attracted many voters from key places.
In conclusion the factors I had listed above all had an affect on the conservative party. Each of these factors contributed massively in a way of keeping the conservatives accountable to the public. Many of the reforms had a major affect on the public, trade unions and the non-conformist; they either disagreed or were very angered. Also with Balfour as prime minister he also had made serious miscalculations, which again angered the public. With these factors the liberals had gained the publics confidence in them to sought out the problems of the conservatives, which gave them a landslide victory in the elections.