Why did the Liberals win a landslide election in 1906?

Rachel Holmes

In 1906, the era of Conservative dominance that had lasted for almost a decade ended with a liberal landslide vote that overturned the politics of the day. The Liberal Party won by a majority of 399 seats, compared to 157 for the Conservative and Unionist governments. The party then held this position of power up to and beyond the outbreak of war in 1914. Despite these statistics, however, the Liberal victory was not as great as it seems. There was in fact not much discrepancy between votes, with 2,727,000 for the Liberals and 2,451,000 votes in favour of the Conservatives. The ‘first past the post’ system definitely worked in the Liberal’s favour.

It is often quoted in politics that ‘oppositions do not win elections; governments lose them’, and this was particularly true for the 1906 election. There were many factors that contributed to a high loss of support for the Tories leading up to this election that in fact, resulted in the Liberal victory.

One of the most significant issues dealt with in this election was tariff reform. Many believe that this was in fact the deciding factor in the election, such as this journalist writing for the Manchester Guardian on 15th January 1906:

“A candidate had only to be a Free Trader to get in, whether he was known or unknown, semi-unionist or thorough Home Ruler, Protestant or Roman Catholic, entertaining or dull. He had only to be a Protectionist to lose all chance of getting in though he spoke with the tongues of men and angels, though he was a good ...

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Statistics focussing on the different issues covered in the 1906 election show that the maintenance of free trade was mentioned in 98% of Liberal Election addresses, supporting the opinion that this was the major issue in 1906.

There were many other issues that also made the Conservative party unpopular with the British public. Foreign policy in particular was a large contributing factor to their defeat. The Boer war in 1899 was significant in making the conservative party look bad and made the Liberals seem a very strong, coordinated and humanitarian party in comparison to them. Issues such as the cruelty of treatment of prisoners during the Boer war, the Chinese Slavery quandary in South Africa brought the government under attack.

The ways in which the Conservative Party dealt with issues on social reform also contributed to their reputation of being inhumane. Policies that were brought in, such as the licensing and education acts were met with heavy opposition from non-conformist churches and the Conservative party was often criticised for its paternalistic ideas for helping the poor. One of the few examples of Tory social reform was the Ireland land bill in 1902. This was badly received and disparaged for being too little, too late.

The Liberal party were portrayed as a very dominant party on social reform. Their strong programme designed to introduce pensions, get rid of the poor law and many other ideas for social welfare was very popular. The Newcastle Programme drawn up at this time was also highly supported by many in Britain.

In addition, the Liberals had the support of many organisations and societies. Non-conformists in particular supported the Liberals because they opposed many of the Conservative policies that alienated this sector of society. Groups in Scotland and Wales in particular were affected by the highly pro-Church of England legislations. The newly founded Labour party also aided the Liberals in their success. The run-up to the election became a battle of ‘Rich v. Poor’. The Unionists and Tories were branded ‘Plutocratic parties’. Many of the Conservative gains and acts up to this point were ‘represented as a victory for privilege. It was to no purpose that the Unionist candidates argued one point or another. There was no escaping the general impression.’ The success of the Labour party would later become the major aspect to threaten the Liberal Party.

Quoted in Pearce and Stewart’s British Political History 1867-1990

From A.K. Russell, Liberal Landslide: the General Election of 1906

From Quarterly Review (April 1906)

ibid.