Why did the liberal party win a landslide victory in the 1906 General Election?

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October 7 2004                                                         Anna Carlisle

                                                                

Why did the liberal party win a landslide victory in the 1906 General Election?

In the 1906 general election, the Liberal party dramatically increased their number of seats from 184, in 1900 to 400.  In contrast, the Conservative party, who had dominated British politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries lost nearly half their seats in 1906, decreasing from 402 to 157.  A combination of Liberal strengths and Conservative weaknesses, as well as other circumstances at this time meant that this sudden change occurred.

The Conservative party introduced two new acts just before this General Election which greatly decreased their popularity.  The Education Act of 1902 was an attempt by the conservatives to improve national efficiency: Britain must improve the health and well-being of the nation if it was to remain a leading world power.  The act abolished school boards, which meant that taxpayers funded primary school education.  Although this was a successful policy, (attendance at school increased from 94,000 in 1905 to 200,000 by 1914) it angered non-conformists who were outraged that their taxes were being used to fund church schools.  In fact, the Act was branded ‘Rome on Rates’, as the Catholic Church was benefiting from taxes being paid by anti-Catholic citizens: Balfour soon had to control a revolt as 7000 people refused to pay their taxes.  This rebellion shows just how unpopular this act was and significantly reduced the amount of support for the Conservatives.  The Non-Conformists were also outraged by the Licensing Act of 1904, which aimed to reduce the number of public houses in areas where they were not needed.  However, the government paid compensation to the brewers whose pubs were closed down which angered voters as the brewers were receiving unnecessary government funds.  This act, nicknamed ‘The Brewers Bill’ was another attempt by the Conservatives to introduce reform, which ended in their popularity decreasing in the 1906 election.  These acts were important, not only because they weakened Conservative support but also because they gave the Liberal party new policies to increase popularity: they promised to reverse the Education and Licensing Acts, which made them more attractive to Non-Conformists.  The reforms gave the Liberal party strength: whereas in 1900, they had been split over the issue of home rule and had suffered from ‘faddism’, the party now had something they could all campaign against.

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Despite these two attempts at change, the Conservative leader, Balfour, who was elected in 1902 was criticised at this time for not introducing enough social reforms.  As a wealthy aristocrat, he appeared to be put of touch with the working class men, many of whom had just been awarded the vote in 1884 and were beginning to take an interest in politics.  Although, the unemployed workmen act of 1905 helped the unemployed find work through labour exchanges, set up by distress committees, Balfour refused to give these committees any government funding and they had to rely on charities: to many ...

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