By-Elections of the First Labour Government

Abstract

In the two years from the Newport by-election of October 1922 to the formation of Baldwin’s second ministry following the general election of October 1924, British politics underwent a period of rapid transition. These two years saw three general elections and four Prime Ministers. They also saw a transformation of the political scene: Lloyd George fell from power, never to hold office again; the Labour Party formed its first-ever administration, even though still a minority party. But of all the changes, the most lasting was perhaps the fate of the Liberal Party. Reunited and resuscitated, the party had fought the election of 1923 on its favourite fiscal battleground, with a vigour and a sense of purpose it had not known since pre-war days. Ten months later it emerged from the election of 1924 like the army of Napoleon which recrossed the Berezina in 1812, an exhausted, demoralised rabble that could never challenge successfully for supremacy again.