Reasons for the Liberal Social Reforms - New Liberalism

2. The Liberal Party
In the late-1800s there were two
major political parties in British
politics – the Conservatives and
the Liberals.
The Liberals were generally the
party most likely to gain working
class support. However many of
their members and MPs did not
favour changing the government’s
laissez faire approach to poverty.

3. The New Liberals
Prime Minister Henry Campbell-
Bannerman – an ‘Old Liberal’ -
died in 1908 and was replaced by
Herbert Asquith, who was more
supportive of change.
He gave jobs to people such as
David Lloyd George and
Winston Churchill, the so-called
‘New Liberals’ that favoured a
different approach to poverty.

4. David Lloyd George
Lloyd George’s father was a
teacher but died when his son was
young. This forced his family to
move and gave him an insight into
the problems many people in
Britain had to face.
Lloyd George trained as a lawyer
before eventually getting involved
in, firstly local politics, and then
national politics.

5. 1906 election result
In 1906, Labour gained 29
MPs; this was less than 5%
of the total number of MPs in
Parliament. Labour’s share
of the vote in the election
was only 4.8%.
However the Liberals gained
397 MPs, almost 14 times
as many as Labour did.

6. The New Liberals
Lloyd George and others – some
of whom had lived poor lives - felt
that society should be fairer, and
that Britain would be more
prosperous and strong if this
happened.
The size of the two parties shows
that the Liberals had no real
reason to worry about Labour and
acted out of genuine belief.

7. The New Liberals
Many other Liberals firmly
opposed some of their party’s
plans, including former Liberal
leader Lord Rosebery.
Lots of Liberal MPs had been
elected before 1906 and had not
taken action to improve working
class lives, possibly until the rise
of Labour forced them to do so.

8. The People’s Budget
Lloyd George introduced the
People’s Budget in 1909. This
aimed to raise money from the
wealthy to tackle poverty and
fund welfare reform.
Proposals included a tax on the
land owned by wealthy people in
Britain, such as the profits made
when selling land. Tax would also
increase on alcohol and tobacco.

9. The People’s Budget
The budget caused outrage in
British politics. The House of
Lords refused to agree to this.
The Liberals dissolved the
government and called two
general elections in 1910. This
resulted in the 1911 Parliament
Act which meant that the House
of Lords could no longer overrule
the House of Commons.

10. A “war budget”
The fact that the Liberals risked
calling elections – which they
might have lost – to ensure their
reforms were introduced shows
they truly supported them.
David Lloyd George described his
plans as being a “war budget”,
with the “war” being the need to
tackle extreme poverty in Britain.

11. A “war budget”
However the budget included £3
million for new Dreadnought
ships, to ensure Britain was
ready for a possible war.
This suggests that military war
was more important than social
concerns to some Liberals. This
perhaps means their reforms
support was based on having
enough fit soldiers and sailors.