Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)

At the 1931 general election, a small group of official Liberal candidates led by former Liberal Party leader, David Lloyd George, and mostly related to him, stood on a platform of opposition to the National Government and were sometimes referred to as Independent Liberals.

Although officially party leader, Lloyd George had been absent from the negotiations which led up to the formation of the National Government due to having undergone a serious operation from which he was recuperating, although he had been consulted daily. Acting Liberal Party leader Sir Herbert Samuel had endorsed the government and accepted office as Home Secretary. A Liberal party grandee Marquess of Reading, who became Foreign Secretary, stated at public meetings that Lloyd George was "in full accord" with what the party had done. On 20 September Lloyd George was well enough to issue a statement which declared that the nation would pull through, and that "a faction fight among ourselves at this juncture would be unpatriotic lunacy".

Within a few days, events caused Lloyd George's attitude to shift dramatically. The immediate cause was the prospect of an early general election, to which Lloyd George was violently opposed: he believed that the Government would put forward the Conservative Party's policy of tariffs, countering the Liberal Party's firm commitment to free trade. The Liberal Party also opposed an early election when the prospect was raised at the end of September, but the Liberal 'shadow cabinet' under Samuel approved a memorandum which allowed an investigation of a special tariff. Leading Liberals, and eventually Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, visited Lloyd George at his home at Churt to try to come to an agreement, but found that he became more confrontational: to MacDonald, Lloyd George said that if an election were held, he would fight as a supporter of free trade and demand a definite statement of the Government's policy on the issue. Faced with Lloyd George's intractability, the Cabinet decided to call an election anyway; there would be no specific statement on tariffs but the manifesto would appeal for a 'Doctor's mandate' to do whatever was necessary to repair the economy. Liberal ministers accepted this decision.

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