In 1902 the s introduced the Education Act which got rid of school boards and, instead, gave their duties to the county councils. The new Local Education Authorities were given powers to establish new secondary schools and also develop the existing system in primary schools. It was offensive to many, especially non-conformists, because it meant that people's rates funded their local school. This meant that non-conformists would have to pay towards the upkeep of Anglican and Catholic schools. The National Passive Resistance Committee was formed by John Clifford and members were both Liberal and Labour supporters who campaigned against the act. By 1906, 170 men had gone to prison as a result of refusing to pay the school taxes. This was a major political issue and also lost support for the Conservative party. It was one of the main reasons for the Liberal’s victory.
In 1903, the Labour Representation Committee made a pact with the Liberals. It was agreed that Liberals wouldn't oppose Labour candidates in a number of constituencies. These constituencies were chosen because it was thought that Labour candidates would have a better chance of beating the Conservatives than Liberal candidates. In return for this, the Labour candidates would not oppose the Liberals elsewhere. As a result, the anti-Conservative vote was not split and many Conservative seats were lost, it also encouraged Trade Unions and their supporters to vote Liberal.
Another explanation for the Liberal victory is the tariff reforms of 1903. The Conservatives were having disputes over whether taxes should be imposed on foreign goods. Arthur Balfour and Joseph Chamberlain had different views on this. Balfour thought that Britain should keep free trade whereas Chamberlain felt the economic future of Britain could be secured by abandoning free trade and replacing it with tariffs that gave preferential treatment to imports from British colonies and that would give British companies that were producing goods for sale in Britain some protection from cheaper foreign goods. The reforms helped to unite the party behind free trade and it also attracted some conservatives, including Winston Churchill, to abandon their allegiance to the Liberals. The issue split the Conservative party into 3. First there were the ‘whole-hoggers’ who completely accepted the reforms, second there were the ‘free-fooders’ who supported free trade over the tariffs and finally there were the Balfourites who agreed with the compromise of accepting limited tariff reforms.
The tariff reforms were controversial as many people believed that they would lead to higher living costs, that Britain’s economic prosperity relied on free trade and also industries such as textiles and coal thought the reforms mite exclude them from overseas markets.
After having won the Boer War, Balfour organised cheap labor from China to collect and dig the Gold in the Transvaal gold mines. The use of Chinese laborers, known as Coolies, caused outrage amongst the British public as they were forced to live in terrible conditions and work long hours. This lost support for the Conservative party and eventually the use of Chinese slaves was abandoned.
The ‘first-past-the-post’ electoral system meant that the candidate for each constituency who wins the highest number of votes wins that election.
This system exaggerated the Liberals victory of 400 seats compared to the Conservatives 156.
There were many reasons for the Liberal victory in the 1906 election but some were definitely more important than others. One of them is the Education Act of 1902 which lost the Conservatives a lot of support. The support for Liberals then increased as they opposed the act and, in turn people who had previously been Conservatives moved over to the Liberal party. Another reason is the tariff reforms which caused splits in the Conservative party. This meant they became a weaker party and were less stable, similar to the Liberals in 1886. A major reason for the Liberal success was because of arguments and bad decisions in the Conservative party which made them seem less stable. This meant that as the Tories became less popular, popularity for both the Liberal and Labour party increased.
Jessica Wills
