A FORGOTTEN LIBERal–CONSERVATIVE AlliancE ThE COnsTITUTIOnalisTS and THE 1924 GENERal ElECTION – A NEW PARTY OR A WORThlEss COUPON? Collaboration between Liberals and Conservatives in British politics is not new. Some past arrangements, such as the Lloyd George Coalition, or the National Government of 1931, have been well researched, while others, including the Constitutionalists, have barely received any attention. Whilst it is fairly well- known that Churchill labelled himself as a Constitutionalist at the 1924 general election, in an attempt to straddle the Liberal– Conservative divide, he was not the only candidate bearing the label. Alun Wyburn- Powell identifies the other candidates who also styled themselves Constitutionalists, and investigates their electoral records, their views and their objectives. 6 Journal of Liberal History 79 Summer 2013 A FORGOTTEN LIBERal–CONSERVATIVE AlliancE ThE COnsTITUTIOnalisTS and THE 1924 GENERal ElECTION – A NEW PARTY OR A WORThlEss COUPON? n analysing their perfor- 162 candidates faced a Conserva- to those of the Fusionists, and some mance at the 1924 election, it tive contender.1 of the groups’ membership over- Iis possible to draw conclusions By the following election, in lapped. Whilst the Fusionists had about the success of the Constitu- 1923, the political landscape was been more strategic in their long- tionalist experiment and its impact very different. Lloyd George and term ambition permanently to on the Liberal Party, placing it in Asquith were reconciled and the merge their branch of Liberalism the wider context of the Liberals’ Liberal Party was more or less reu- with the Conservatives, the Con- decline and, in doing so, to answer nited, in opposition to the Con- stitutionalists were more short- the question as to whether the Con- servatives’ plans for protection. The term and their focus was primarily stitutionalists were a putative new Liberals gained seats, winning 159, concerned with maximising their party, or simply a loose grouping against 191 for Labour and 258 for chances of victory at the 1924 elec- using a coupon for short-term elec- the Conservatives. The inconclu- tion, by avoiding a local Liberal– toral advantage. sive outcome of the election placed Conservative contest. the Liberals in the invidious posi- The first publicity for a putative tion of having to permit or deny Constitutionalist group appeared The Lloyd George Coalition Labour their first opportunity to in The Times in September 1920, and the 1920 attempt at fusion form a government. They allowed as a display advertisement invit- The closeness of the political rela- Labour a milestone nine-month ing readers to attend a confer- tionship between some Liberals term in office, much to the annoy- ence in London to ‘help to carry and Conservatives was such that ance of most Conservatives and out the preliminary organisation during the Lloyd George Coa- many right-leaning Liberals. For of the Constitutional Party’.2 It lition Government of 1916–22, many voters, and even some Liberal was placed in the name of Charles there were moves towards ‘fusion’ MPs, this suggested that the Lib- Higham, an export merchant, of the Coalition Liberals and the eral Party had become superfluous, who sat as the Coalition Conserva- Conservatives. However, these with the essential battle of ideas tive MP for Islington South from manoeuvres were not seen favour- raging between the Labour Party 1918 to 1922. No further public- ably throughout the parties and and the Conservatives. ity appeared and no new party the moves were blocked, even Between the ending of the emerged. The Constitutionalist within the Lloyd George Liberal fusion plans in 1920 and the 1924 label was used occasionally in the side of the alliance, in 1920. At the election, three former Liberal MPs early 1920s in local politics, notably following election in 1922, Lloyd – Hilton Philipson, Arthur Evans by the ruling Liberal–Conserva- George led a depleted band which and Walter Waring – defected to tive alliance in Bootle in 1920–21 stood for that election under the the Conservatives. Other Liber- and then by the local Conservatives name ‘National Liberal’, exposed als, in particular Winston Church- alone in 1922–23.3 to competition from Labour and, ill, continued to harbour hopes The term reappeared in national in some cases, also from Asquith- Winston for some form of alliance with the politics when George Jarrett, the ian Liberals. Hastily-made Churchill in Conservatives. It was against this one-armed former chief organiser arrangements for the National 1924, after his background that the Constitution- of the Lloyd George Coalition- Liberals to be spared Conservative election as alists emerged as an attempt at an supporting National Democratic opposition were only partly imple- Constitutionalist anti-socialist alliance. The aims of and Labour Party (NDP), described mented and 43 of Lloyd George’s MP for Epping the Constitutionalists were similar himself as a ‘constitutionalist’ in Journal of Liberal History 79 Summer 2013 7 A FORGOTTEN liBERal-CONSERVATIVE alliancE a letter to The Times. He stood in 1922 defeat at Dundee. In May 1923, in a more Conservative direction’.16 the 1922 election as the nominee he described himself in private The result turned Lloyd George’s of both the National Liberal and as ‘a Tory Democrat’.9 However, thinking away from his plans for an Conservative associations in Dart- the arrival of the general election alliance with the Labour govern- ford, winning the seat against both in December 1923 forced him to ment and towards a revival of a Lib- Labour and Asquithian Liberal abandon his oscillation over party eral–Conservative arrangement. opposition. At the following con- labels. He settled for the Liberal To Lloyd George, and many other test, in 1923, Jarrett wrote in his candidacy at West Leicester, where Liberals, the Abbey by-election election address: ‘A year ago you he hoped that he might be spared a result demonstrated the strength of honoured me by returning me … Conservative opponent, although Anti-Socialist Liberalism and, at without respect to party … Again I it was, as Roy Jenkins observed, the same time, the weakness of the stand as the Constitutional Candi- impossible to see why he should Liberal Party. This was a widely- date.’4 His name appeared on both have thought this ‘remotely likely.’10 drawn conclusion at the time but, the Liberal and Conservative Party His wife, Clementine, so often as pointed out by Chris Cook, official lists of candidates in 1923. more objective than her husband an erroneous one. Churchill had However, in a straight fight with When the about his career, advised Churchill: mainly attracted former Conserva- Labour, he was defeated. Jarrett ‘I am sure the old real Liberals will tive voters and the Liberal Party thus served only one year in Parlia- Westminster want you back but … do not give had hardly campaigned.17 Church- ment, from 1922 to 1923, but was them cause … for thinking that ill’s eve-of-poll speech had advo- the first to do so as a Constitution- Abbey by- you would like a new Tory Liberal cated a united Conservative party alist.5 He formally joined the Con- Coalition … if you were to lose a ‘with a Liberal wing’.18 servative Party in January 1924. election was seat … it would be better for you to Jarrett was a close associate of be beaten by a Tory (which would Algernon Moreing, who was first called in Feb- arouse Liberal sympathy) than by The 1924 cast of Constitutional elected for the East Yorkshire con- a Socialist’.11 Churchill lost West characters stituency of Buckrose as a Coalition ruary 1924, Leicester to Labour and, like Jarrett After the Westminster near-miss, Liberal in 1918. He was a strong and Moreing, he was very unsym- Churchill decided to improve his advocate of fusion in 1920.6 In 1922 Churchill pathetic towards the Liberal Party negotiating position by gathering Moreing changed constituencies when it supported Labour after the around him a Liberal group ready and was successful as the National was caught 1923 election. When he was asked to co-operate with the Conserva- Liberal candidate for Camborne. in February 1924 to stand again as tives; he envisaged that his follow- However, the 1923 election in this between par- a Liberal, Churchill replied that he ers would occupy the same position constituency illustrated that Lib- would not be willing to fight the as the Liberal Unionists had in eral reunion was less than total; the ties. He was Conservatives.12 On 26 February 1886. On 10 May 1924 Church- only two candidates in Camborne convinced 1924 the Glasgow Herald declared ill informed Baldwin that he was were both Liberals, Moreing’s that Churchill was preparing the organising a group of Liberal only challenger being the Asquith- that Baldwin way for his return to the Conserva- MPs who would be willing to co- ian Liberal, Leif Jones. Moreing’s tive Party.13 operate with the Conservatives – name also appeared on the official wanted him When the Westminster Abbey Churchill provisionally called them list of Conservative candidates. by-election was called in Febru- ‘Liberal–Conservatives’.19 He told Unresolved differences between returned, ary 1924, Churchill was caught Baldwin that there were at least the followers of Lloyd George and between parties. He was convinced twenty Labour seats which could Asquith in Camborne led to the and won- that Baldwin wanted him returned, be won by Liberals, and only Liber- nomination of the two Liberal can- and wondered if the local Con- als, if they were given Conservative didates and the so-called United dered if the servative association might adopt support.20 This helped Churchill Liberal Committee in London him as their candidate, despite the persuade Baldwin to try and find declared its neutrality between the local Con- fact that he was not even a mem- him a safe Conservative seat in or candidates, rather than risk fuelling ber of their party.14 But when the near London and, if possible, a seat the local split.