LiberalHistoryToday

Unable to back down, Liberal MPs had to support their amendment (with the exception of 12 MPs), which was passed 364 votes to 198, precipitating an election which was a disaster for the Liberals. 🧵 4/4

The result was the opposite of what the party had hoped to achieve. The Tories switched to support the Liberal amendment, and the government announced that it would treat it as a matter of confidence. 🧵 3/4

The government initially supported the prosecution but rapidly backtracked. The Tories put down a motion of no confidence. The Liberal Party, which had opposed the prosecution from the start, sought to defuse matters (and avoid an election) by calling for an inquiry. 🧵 2/4

#OTD 1924: A Liberal motion brings down the first Labour Government. It called for a select committee of inquiry into the 'Campbell case' - named after the editor of the Communist paper Worker's Weekly, who was arrested on a charge of incitement to mutiny. 🧵 1/4

#OTD 1896: Lord Rosebery resigns as leader of the Liberal Party. In his resignation letter to Liberal Chief Whip Tom Ellis, Rosebery cited the recent speech by William Gladstone on Armenia as the primary reason for his standing down.

#OTD 1968: Death of Maurice Arnold de Forest, racing driver, aviator and Liberal MP for West Ham North 1911-18, which he won on a by-election platform which included land nationalisation, female suffrage and Irish Home Rule. He was made a baron by Emperor Franz Joseph.

#OTD 1931: A meeting of 22 members of the Liberal parliamentary party agrees to set up a new body to support the National Government. Following the meeting, Sir John Simon penned a note to PM Ramsay MacDonald, 'We shall,' Simon wrote, 'call ourselves Liberal Nationals.'

#OTD 1809: The Duke of Portland resigns as PM. Whilst professing to be a Whig, his second spell as PM was as a figurehead to an administration comprised of supporters of William Pitt. Old and infirm, he provided little direction to the government and rarely attended cabinet.

#OTD 1960: Death of Ernest Darwin Simon, 1st Baron Simon of Wythenshawe, Liberal MP for Manchester Withington 1923-24 & 1929-31. He was a director of the Liberal Summer School and Vice Chairman of the Liberal Industrial Inquiry, which resulted in the Yellow Book of 1928.

land reform, reform of the House of Lords, 3-year parliaments, abolition of plural voting and Scottish and Welsh church disestablishment. The Liberal Governments of 1892-5 implemented some aspects of it, including employers' liability, parish councils, and graduated death duties. 🧵 2/2

#OTD 1891: In a speech to the National Liberal Federation annual conference in Newcastle, William Ewart Gladstone supports the 'Newcastle Programme' adopted by the Federation. It retained support for Irish home rule as its central plank but also contained proposals on...🧵 1/2

#OTD 1904: Death of William Vernon Harcourt. He started his ministerial career in 1873 when he was appointed Solicitor General, and later served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1886 and 1892-5. His budget of 1894 introduced death duties on real and personal property.

To commemorate the sad death of Menzies Campbell, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem, on 26 September 2025, we are reprinting here the chapter on him from our book 'British Liberal Leaders' (Biteback, 2015): liberalhistory.org.uk/menzies-camp...

#OTD 1805: Birth of Sidney Smith (1805-1881), a solicitor of radical instincts who in 1839 became a lecturer for the Anti-Corn Law League, soon becoming one of their most popular speakers. He masterminded the election of a free trade candidate in the City of London in 1843.

#OTD 1872: Birth of Ramsay Muir, historian, Liberal MP for Rochdale 1923-24, and Chair of the National Liberal Federation 1931-33. In 1921, he was one of the co-founders of the Liberal Summer School, a major source of ideas for the party in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1976, he founded the Parliamentary Human Rights Group, chairing it for over 20 years and producing a string of hard-hitting reports on human rights breaches, which saw him banned from visiting several countries. Lord Avebury died in 2016, aged 87. 🧵 3/3

In 1963 he was appointed Chief Whip and in 1967 stood for the party leadership against Emlyn Hooson and the eventual winner, Jeremy Thorpe. Out of parliament from 1970, he succeeded as Baron Avebury the following year, serving as a member of the Foreign Affairs Team in the House of Lords. 🧵 2/3

#OTD 1928: Birth of Eric Lubbock, 4th Baron Avebury, Liberal MP for Orpington 1962-70. Lubbock came to prominence with his victory in the Orpington by-election of March 1962, coming from third place to win the seat. As MP, he campaigned for electoral reform and a reduction in the voting age. 🧵 1/3

#OTD 1988: Paddy Ashdown delivers his first leader’s speech. The speech was well received by a packed hall, with it receiving a five-and-a-half-minute standing ovation. Ashdown noted that spirits were very high at Glee Club.

#OTD 1956: Clement Davies steps down as Liberal leader, stating, 'It is time that the tiller was placed in the hands of a younger man. Fortunately, I can step down knowing that there is a worthy successor waiting.' He is succeeded in November by Jo Grimond.

#OTD 1735: Birth of Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, PM 1768-70. His government was not a success. The cabinet, largely inherited from the previous ministry, lacked a common purpose. Hit by a series of resignations, the government fell apart.

#OTD 1932: Sir Herbert Samuel and Sir Archibald Sinclair resign from the National Government in protest at the protectionist schemes proposed at the Ottawa Conference. The resignations, along with eight junior ministers, completed the split with the Liberal Nationals.

He and Clementia sought to promote manhood suffrage, separation of church and state, nationalism in Italy, emancipation in the American slave states, women's suffrage, married women's property rights and just about every radical cause Liberals could espouse. 🧵 2/2

#OTD 1842: The marriage takes place of Peter Alfred Taylor (MP for Leicester 1862-1884) and Clementia Doughty, a remarkable, radical couple who became engaged in all the main political debates of the day. 🧵 1/2

#OTD 1963: Death of Goronwy Owen, Liberal MP for Caernarvonshire 1923-45. He worked as a teacher before serving on the Western Front in WW1. Elected to the House of Commons in 1923, he briefly served as Liberal Chief Whip 1931-32 and as a whip in the National Government.

#OTD 1941: Death of James Daniel Gilbert, banker, city merchant and Liberal MP for Newington West 1916-18 and for Southwark Central 1918-24. He was also a Progressive Party member of the London County Council from 1898-1928.

This was the formal adoption by the party of community politics. 🧵 3/3

...acting both inside and outside the institutions of the political establishment, and stating that the role of Liberal activists was to organise people in communities to take and use power and to help redress grievances. 🧵 2/3

#OTD 1970: The Liberal Party assembly at Eastbourne passes by 348 votes to 236 a Young Liberal amendment, moved by Tony Greaves, to a motion on party strategy and tactics calling for a dual approach to politics...🧵 1/3

#OTD 1962: Death of Frank Kingsley Griffith, barrister and judge who was Liberal MP for Middlesbrough West 1928-40. He was chair of the Young Liberals and a member of the Liberal Organising Committee. He retired from the Commons in 1940 upon appointment as a County Court Judge.