Liberal Party(UK)
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Liberal Party
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| Founded | 9 June 1859 |
| Dissolved | 2 March 1988 |
| Merger of | Whigs, Radicals, Peelites |
| Merged into | Liberal Democrats |
| Headquarters | Offices at the National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London |
| Ideology |
Liberalism (British) Internal factions: • Social liberalism • Classical liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| National affiliation | SDP–Liberal Alliance (1981–88) |
| European affiliation | Federation of European Liberal Democrats (1976–88) |
| International affiliation | Liberal International (1947–88) |
| European Parliament group |
Liberal and Democratic Group (1976–85) Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group (1985–88) |
| Colours | Yellow |
The Liberal Party was a political party which, with the Conservative Party, was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American and French Revolutions in the 1850s. By the end of the nineteenth century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1906 with a landslide victory.
It passed the welfare reforms that created a basic British welfare state. H. H. Asquith was Liberal Prime Minister between 1908-1916, followed by David Lloyd George, 1916-22. Although Asquith was the Leader of the Liberal Party, the dominant figure was Lloyd George. Asquith was overwhelmed by the wartime role of coalition Prime Minister, and Lloyd George replaced him as the Prime Minister in late-1916 but Asquith remained as Liberal party leader. The pair fought for years over control of the party, badly weakening it in the process. Historian Martin Pugh in The Oxford Companion to British History argues that Lloyd George:
The Lloyd George coalition was dominated by the Conservative Party, which finally deposed him in 1922. By the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives' main rival. The party went into decline after 1918 and by the 1950s won no more than six seats at general elections. Apart from notable by-election victories, the party's fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. At the 1983 general election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, but only 23 of the 650 seats it contested. At the 1987 general election, its share of the vote fell below 23% and the Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats. A splinter group reconstituted the Liberal Party in 1989. It was formed by party members opposed to the merger who saw the Lib Dems diluting Liberal ideals.
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Wikipedia