The Liberal opposition saw their chance to regain control of the country and they exploited Conservative weakness through thought provoking poster campaigns. They would portray two loaves of bread that could be bought for the same amount of money, a large one under free trade and a smaller one under protection. The aim of their poster campaign was to emphasise that an import tax on goods from outside the empire, would raise the price of goods such as wheat, which was crucial for bread. The raise in food prices was known as stomach taxes, this is because people wouldn’t have been able to feed themselves due to the extortionate prices. Tariff Reform would have also lead to raw materials and plant being much more expensive, as well as higher wages. However, by presenting a united front over free trade, the Liberals were able to increase their electoral appeal.
Before the 1906 election, the Liberals had been doing significantly worse than the conservatives, they had not been in power for over 15 years. It was not through their own doing but conservative mis-management that they were able to unite and form a government who had strong foundations, against everything the Conservatives put forward.
In the 1900 election (the khaki election), the conservatives gained a comfortable victory. The public were full malice and gave their complete backing to the Boer war, which had started in 1899. When the war ended two years later, it cost 30,000 British lives and about £300 million. This was a shock as the war wasn’t envisaged to be a big war, it was seen as a little war that got out of control.
Added to this was the issue of Chinese slavery, a humanitarian issue that heard many a cry of ‘cheap labour’. Suddenly the employed working class began to get worried as they feared for their jobs, seeing as employing foreigners was significantly cheaper and more economical. Coupled with the Tariff Reform suggestion, it seemed as if in the worst case scenario, people would be without jobs and be having to pay more money for certain goods.
Tariff Reform’s initial intention was to capture the working class but all it really did was alienate them. Aikin,a historian says:
“Tariff Reform in fact completed the alienation of the working class voters from the unionist party.”
With the Conservative party in disrepute, the Liberals began to see a glimmer of hope as the lower classes began to warm to them, feeling that anything was better than the travesty of Conservative leadership. By-election losses after May 1903 clearly indicated that the government’s image had been badly impaired. Between August 1903 and January 1906, there were 17 by-elections in seats which had been won by the Conservatives in the 1900 general election. In none of these by-elections was a Conservative candidate successful, emphasising how much the Tariff Reform campaign had actually marred the Conservatives.
“Tariff Reform, which had destroyed the unity of the unionist party and alienated public opinion, was the most important single reason for the Liberal success in 1906.” –Aikin.
Without a doubt Joseph Chamberlain’s blindness to public opinion was the crucial factor between 1903 and 1906. His campaign split the Liberal Unionist-Conservative alliance and contributed to its defeat in the election of 1906. Ill health ended Chamberlain's public life in 1906, but his tariff policy was adopted (1919, 1932) within the lifetime of his sons, Austen and Neville.
