The Birth of the Third Party in British Politics

Abstract

The Two-Party System THE PLIGHT of the old political parties of Great Britain after the First World War calls for deeper consideration than has been given to it by the historians. The two-party system had been maintained with only one serious break since the time of Sir Robert Peel. The revolt of members of Gladstone's cabinet, in the Eighties, over the Irish question, brought the small group called Unionists into the Commons, but it exerted no great influence in the constituencies. In 1902 when Joseph Chamberlain announced his proposals for colonial preference (misnamed tariff reform), some of the men who had revolted on the Irish question (peers and commoners) opposed the campaign and denounced it from Free Trade platforms. One other change was made, which turned out to be of a more serious consequence, when during the Boer War, Lord Rosebery and Mr. Asquith with others, who had been staunch Liberals, formed a group called the Liberal Imperialists. The composition of the House of Commons before the General Election of 1906 was, on the whole, representative of the two old parties. Such members as William Abraham, John Burns, Charles Fenwick, Keir Hardie, and Thomas Burt sat as Liberals. Some of these men had been in the House since 1885, that is, for twenty-five years before members were paid by the government. The first to hoist the banner of the toiler was Keir Hardie, who after the 1906 election became chairman of an organization called the L.R.C. (Labor Representation Committee).