View source for Liberal Party (UK)

{{Short description|Political party in the United Kingdom from 1859 to 1988}}
{{About|the former British Liberal Party|the party formed by the 1988 merger with the SDP|Liberal Democrats (UK)|the Liberal Party formed by those opposed to the 1988 merger|Liberal Party (UK, 1989)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Liberal Party
| logo             = Liberal Party logo (pre1988).png
| colorcode        = {{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}
| founder          = [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell]]
| foundation       = {{start date and age|1859|6|9|df=y}}
| dissolution      = {{start date and age|1988|3|2|df=y}}<!--; reconstituted 1989-->
| merger           = {{ubli|[[Whig (British political party)|Whigs]]|[[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]]|[[Peelite]]s|[[Independent Irish Party]]}}
| successor        = [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] (majority)<br>[[Liberal Party (UK, 1989)]] (minority)
| headquarters     = Offices at the [[National Liberal Club]], 1 Whitehall Place, [[London]]
| youth_wing       = [[National League of Young Liberals]]
| ideology         = {{Unbulleted list
 | [[Liberalism]] ([[Liberalism in the United Kingdom|British]])
<br/>'''1859–1906:'''
 | [[Classical liberalism]]<ref name="The Times 1872 p. 5">''The Times'' (31 December 1872), p. 5.</ref>
[[Gladstonian liberalism]]
<br/>'''1906–88:'''
 | [[Social liberalism]]<ref name="Driver2011">{{cite book|author=Stephen Driver|title=Understanding British Party Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2_Qq6RJr6_QC&pg=PA117|access-date=20 July 2013|year=2011|publisher=Polity|isbn=978-0-7456-4077-8|page=117}}</ref>
}}
| national         = [[SDP–Liberal Alliance]]<br>(1981–1988)
| international    = [[International Entente of Radical and Similar Democratic Parties|Radical International]] (1923–1938)<br />[[Liberal International]] (1947–1988)
| european         = [[Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party|Federation of European Liberal Democrats]]<br />(1976–1988)
| europarl         = {{ubli|[[European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group|Liberals and Allies Group]] (1973–1976)|[[European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party Group|Liberal and Democratic Group]] (1976–1979)}}
| affiliation1_title = Northern Irish affiliate
| affiliation1     = [[Ulster Liberal Party]] (1956–1987)
| colours          = {{ubli| {{color box|{{party color|Whigs (British political party)}}}} Orange (official) | {{colour box|{{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}} Yellow (customary)}}
| blank1_title     = Conference
| blank1           = [[Liberal Assembly]]
| anthem           = "[[The Land (song)|The Land]]"
| country          = the United Kingdom
}}
The '''Liberal Party''' was one of the two [[Major party|major]] [[List of political parties in the United Kingdom|political parties]] in the United Kingdom, along with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative Party]], in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref name="BanchoffSmith1999">{{cite book|author1=Thomas Banchoff|author2=Mitchell Smith|title=Legitimacy and the European Union: The Contested Polity|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GgvLEFPY8l4C&pg=PA123|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-18188-4|page=123}}</ref> Beginning as an alliance of [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]], [[free trade]]–supporting [[Peelite]]s, and reformist [[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]] in the 1850s, by the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under [[William Ewart Gladstone]]. Despite being divided over the issue of [[Irish Home Rule]], the party returned to government in 1905 and won a landslide victory in the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906 general election]]. Under [[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|prime ministers]] [[Henry Campbell-Bannerman]] (1905–1908) and [[H. H. Asquith]] (1908–1916), the Liberal Party passed [[Liberal welfare reforms|reforms]] that created a basic [[welfare state]].<ref>[[Martin Pugh (author)|Martin Pugh]], "Lloyd George, David, 1st Earl Lloyd-George", ''The Oxford Companion to British History'', p. 565, quote: "Lloyd George made a greater impact on British public life than any other 20th-century leader, thanks to his pre-war introduction of Britain's social welfare system (especially medical insurance, unemployment insurance, and old-age pensions, largely paid for by taxes on high incomes and on the land)."</ref>  Although Asquith was the [[Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)|party leader]], its dominant figure was [[David Lloyd George]]. 

Asquith was overwhelmed by his wartime role [[Asquith coalition ministry|as prime minister]] and Lloyd George led a coalition that replaced him in late 1916. However,  Asquith remained as Liberal Party leader. The split between [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)|Lloyd George's breakaway faction]] and Asquith's official Liberal faction badly weakened the party.<ref>Michael Fry,  "Political Change in Britain, August 1914 to December 1916: Lloyd George Replaces Asquith: The Issues Underlying the Drama". ''Historical Journal'' (1988) 31#3: 609–627.</ref> The [[Lloyd George ministry|coalition government of Lloyd George]] was increasingly dominated by the Conservative Party, which finally ousted him as prime minister in 1922. The subsequent Liberal collapse was quick and catastrophic. With 400 MPs elected in the 1906 election; they had only 40 in 1924. Their share of the popular vote plunged from 49% to 18%. The [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] absorbed most of the ex-Liberal voters and then became the Conservatives' main rival.<ref>[[Keith Laybourn]], "The Rise of Labour and the Decline of Liberalism" (1995) p. 207.</ref>   

By the 1950s, the party had won as few as six seats at general elections. Apart from a few notable [[by-election]] victories, its fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the [[SDP–Liberal Alliance]] with the newly formed [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP) in 1981. At the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]], the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, but won only 23 of the 633 seats it contested. At the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], its share of the vote fell below 23%. Further, the Liberals and the SDP merged in 1988 to form the Social and Liberal Democrats (SLD), who the following year were renamed the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]. A splinter group reconstituted the [[Liberal Party (UK, 1989)|Liberal Party]] in 1989.<ref>D.A. Hamer, ''Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and Rosebery'' (1972) pp. 1–27.</ref>

The Liberals were a coalition with diverse positions on major issues and no unified national policy. This made them repeatedly liable to deep splits, such as that of the [[Liberal Unionists]] in 1886 (they eventually joined the Conservative Party); the faction of labour union members that joined the new Labour Party; the split between factions led by Asquith and [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)|that led by Lloyd George in 1918–1922]]; and a three-way split in 1931.<ref>Chris Cook, ''A Short History of the Liberal Party'' (7th ed. 2010)</ref>  Many prominent intellectuals were active in the party, including philosopher [[John Stuart Mill]],  economist [[John Maynard Keynes]], and social planner [[William Beveridge]]. [[Winston Churchill]] during [[Winston Churchill's Liberal Party years, 1904–1924|his years as a Liberal (1904–1924)]] authored ''Liberalism and the Social Problem'' (1909).<ref>William C. Lubenow, ''Liberal intellectuals and public culture in modern Britain, 1815–1914: making words flesh'' (Boydell & Brewer, 2010).</ref>

== History ==
=== Origins ===
{{Main|Whigs (British political party)}}{{See also|First Palmerston ministry|Liberal government, 1859–1866}}[[File:palmerston.jpg|thumb|left|[[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston|Viscount Palmerston]]]]
The Liberal Party grew out of the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]], who had their origins in an [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic]] faction in the reign of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]] and the early 19th century [[Radicals (UK)|Radicals]]. The Whigs were in favour of reducing the power of the Crown and increasing the power of [[Parliament of England|Parliament]]. Although their motives in this were originally to gain more power for themselves, the more idealistic Whigs gradually came to support an expansion of [[democracy]] for its own sake. The great figures of reformist [[Whiggism|Whiggery]] were [[Charles James Fox]] (died 1806) and his disciple and successor [[Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey|Earl Grey]]. After decades in opposition, the Whigs returned to power under Grey in 1830 and carried the [[First Reform Act]] in 1832.

The Reform Act was the climax of Whiggism, but it also brought about the Whigs' demise. The admission of the [[middle class]]es to the franchise and to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] led eventually to the development of a systematic middle-class liberalism and the end of Whiggery, although for many years reforming aristocrats held senior positions in the party. In the years after Grey's retirement, the party was led first by [[Lord Melbourne]], a fairly traditional Whig, and then by [[Lord John Russell]], the son of a Duke but a crusading radical, and by [[Lord Palmerston]], a renegade Irish [[Tóraidhe|Tory]] and essentially a [[conservative]], although capable of radical gestures.

As early as 1839, Russell had adopted the name of "Liberals"; in reality, his party was a loose coalition of Whigs in the [[House of Lords]] and Radicals in the Commons. The leading Radicals were [[John Bright]] and [[Richard Cobden]], who represented the manufacturing towns which had gained representation under the Reform Act. They favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of the Crown and the [[Church of England]] (many Liberals were [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformists]]), avoidance of war and foreign alliances (which were bad for business) and above all [[free trade]]. For a century, free trade remained the one cause which could unite all Liberals.

In 1841, the Liberals lost office to the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] under [[Sir Robert Peel]]. However, their period in [[Official Opposition (United Kingdom)|opposition]] was short because the Conservatives split over the repeal of the [[Corn Laws]], a free trade issue; and a faction known as the [[Peelite]]s (but not Peel himself, who died soon after) aligned to the Liberal side on the issue of free trade. This allowed ministries led by Russell, Palmerston and the Peelite [[Lord Aberdeen]] to hold office for most of the 1850s and 1860s. A leading Peelite was William Gladstone, who was a reforming [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] in most of these governments. The formal foundation of the Liberal Party is traditionally traced to 1859 when the remaining Peelites, Radicals and Whigs agreed to vote down the incumbent Conservative government. This meeting was held at the Willis' rooms in London on 6 June 1859. This led to Palmerston's second government.

However, the Whig-Radical amalgam could not become a true modern political party while it was dominated by aristocrats and it was not until the departure of the "Two Terrible Old Men", Russell and Palmerston, that Gladstone could become the first leader of the modern Liberal Party. This was brought about by Palmerston's death in 1865 and Russell's retirement in 1868. After a brief Conservative government (during which the [[Second Reform Act]] was passed by agreement between the parties), Gladstone won a huge victory at the 1868 election and formed the first Liberal government. The establishment of the party as a national membership organisation came with the foundation of the [[National Liberal Federation]] in 1877. The philosopher [[John Stuart Mill]] was also a Liberal MP from 1865 to 1868.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/mill_john_stuart.shtml|title=John Stuart Mill (1806–1873)|publisher=BBC|access-date=30 August 2016}}</ref>

=== Gladstone era ===
{{Main|Premierships of William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstonian liberalism|Foreign policy of William Ewart Gladstone}}
[[File:Acgladstone2.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Portrait of William Ewart Gladstone]]'' by [[John Everett Millais]], 1879]]
For the next 30 years, Gladstone and Liberalism were synonymous. William Gladstone served as prime minister four times (1868–74, 1880–85, 1886, and 1892–94). His financial policies, based on the notion of [[balanced budget]]s, low taxes and ''[[laissez-faire]]'', were suited to a developing capitalist society, but they could not respond effectively as economic and social conditions changed. Called the "Grand Old Man" later in life, Gladstone was always a dynamic popular orator who appealed strongly to the [[working class]] and to the lower middle class. Deeply religious, Gladstone brought a new moral tone to politics, with his evangelical sensibility and his opposition to aristocracy.<ref>J. P. Parry, ''Democracy and Religion: Gladstone and the Liberal Party, 1867–1875'' (1989), p. 174.</ref> His moralism often angered his upper-class opponents (including [[Queen Victoria]]), and his heavy-handed control split the Liberal Party.<ref>H. C. G. Matthew, "Gladstone, William Ewart (1809–1898)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004).</ref><ref>J. L. Hammond and M. R. D. Foot, ''Gladstone and Liberalism'' (1952).</ref>

In foreign policy, Gladstone was in general against foreign entanglements, but he did not resist the realities of imperialism. For example, he ordered the [[History of Egypt under the British|occupation of Egypt]] by British forces in the 1882 [[Anglo-Egyptian War]].<ref>R. C. Mowat, "From Liberalism to Imperialism: The Case of Egypt 1875–1887", ''Historical Journal'' 16#1 (1973), pp. 109–124 focus on Lord Cromer as a Liberal imperialist. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637918 online].</ref> His goal was to create a European order based on co-operation rather than conflict and on mutual trust instead of rivalry and suspicion; the [[rule of law]] was to supplant the reign of force and self-interest. This Gladstonian concept of a harmonious [[Concert of Europe]] was opposed to and ultimately defeated by a [[Bismarckian]] system of manipulated alliances and antagonisms.<ref>Graham D. Goodlad, ''British foreign and imperial policy, 1865–1919'' (2000), p. 21.</ref>

As prime minister from 1868 to 1874, Gladstone headed a Liberal Party which was a coalition of Peelites like himself, Whigs and Radicals. He was now a spokesman for "peace, economy and reform". One major achievement was the [[Elementary Education Act 1870]] ([[33 & 34 Vict.]] c. 75), which provided England with an adequate system of elementary schools for the first time. He also secured the abolition of the [[purchase of commissions in the British Army]] and of religious tests for admission to [[University of Oxford|Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge]]; the introduction of the [[secret ballot]] in elections; the legalization of [[Trade unions in the United Kingdom|trade unions]]; and the reorganization of the [[Judiciaries of the United Kingdom|judiciary]] in the [[Judicature Acts|Judicature Act]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pearce|first1=Robert |last2=Stearn|first2=Roger |title=Access to History, Government and Reform: Britain 1815–1918|edition=2|pages=56–57|publisher=[[Hodder & Stoughton]]|year=2000}}</ref>

Regarding Ireland, the major Liberal achievements were land reform, where he [[Irish Land Acts|ended centuries of landlord oppression]], and the [[State religion#Disestablishment|disestablishment]] of the (Anglican) [[Church of Ireland]] through the [[Irish Church Act 1869]].

In the [[1874 United Kingdom general election|1874 general election]], Gladstone was defeated by the Conservatives under [[Benjamin Disraeli]] during a sharp economic recession. He formally resigned as Liberal leader and was succeeded by the [[Spencer Compton Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire|Marquess of Hartington]], but he soon changed his mind and returned to active politics. He strongly disagreed with Disraeli's pro-[[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] foreign policy and in 1880 he conducted the first outdoor mass-election campaign in Britain, known as the [[Midlothian campaign]]. The Liberals won a large majority in the [[1880 United Kingdom general election|1880 election]]. Hartington ceded his place and Gladstone resumed office.

==== Ireland and Home Rule ====
{{Main|Irish Home Rule movement}}
Among the consequences of the [[Third Reform Act]] (1884) was the giving of the vote to many [[Irish Catholics]]. In the [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885 general election]] the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] held the balance of power in the House of Commons and demanded [[Irish Home Rule]] as the price of support for a continued Gladstone ministry. Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong [[Liberal Unionist]] faction led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], along with the last of the Whigs, Hartington, opposed it. The Irish Home Rule bill proposed to offer all owners of Irish land a chance to sell to the state at a price equal to 20 years' purchase of the rents and allowing tenants to purchase the land. [[Irish nationalist]] reaction was mixed, Unionist opinion was hostile, and the election addresses during the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] revealed English radicals to be against the bill also. Among the Liberal rank and file, several Gladstonian candidates disowned the bill, reflecting fears at the constituency level that the interests of the working people were being sacrificed to finance a costly rescue operation for the landed élite.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2639536|title = The Liberal Party and Gladstone's Land Purchase Bill of 1886|journal = The Historical Journal|volume = 32|issue = 3|pages = 627–641|last1 = Goodlad|first1 = Graham D.|year = 1989|doi = 10.1017/S0018246X00012450| s2cid=154679807 }}</ref> Further, Home Rule had not been promised in the Liberals' election manifesto, and so the impression was given that Gladstone was buying Irish support in a rather desperate manner to hold on to power.

The result was a catastrophic split in the Liberal Party, and heavy defeat in the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] at the hands of [[Lord Salisbury]], who was supported by the breakaway [[Liberal Unionist Party]]. There was a final weak Gladstone ministry in 1892, but it also was dependent on Irish support and failed to get Irish Home Rule through the House of Lords.

==== Newcastle Programme ====
{{main|Newcastle Programme}}
Historically, the aristocracy was divided between Conservatives and Liberals. However, when Gladstone committed to home rule for Ireland, Britain's upper classes largely abandoned the Liberal party, giving the Conservatives a large permanent majority in the House of Lords. Following the Queen, High Society in London largely ostracized home rulers and Liberal clubs were badly split. [[Joseph Chamberlain]] took a major element of upper-class supporters out of the Party and into a third party called [[Liberal Unionist Party|Liberal Unionism]] on the Irish issue. It collaborated with and eventually merged into the Conservative party.<ref>[[R. C. K. Ensor]], ''England 1870–1914'' (1936), pp. 206–207.</ref><ref>Peter Fraser, "The Liberal Unionist Alliance: Chamberlain, Hartington, and the Conservatives, 1886–1904." ''English Historical Review'' 77#302 (1962): 53–78.</ref> The Gladstonian liberals in 1891 adopted [[The Newcastle Programme]] that included home rule for Ireland, [[Disestablishmentarianism|disestablishment]] of the [[Church of England in Wales]], [[Alcohol law|tighter controls on the sale of liquor]], major extension of factory regulation and various democratic political reforms. The Programme had a strong appeal to the nonconformist middle-class Liberal element, which felt liberated by the departure of the aristocracy.<ref>{{cite book|author=Chris Cook|title=A Short History of the Liberal Party: The Road Back to Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1p9DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA25|year=2010|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|pages=24–26|isbn=9781137056078}}</ref>

==== Relations with trade unions ====
{{Main|History of trade unions in the United Kingdom}}
A major long-term consequence of the Third Reform Act was the rise of [[Lib-Lab]] candidates. The Act split all [[county constituencies]] (which were represented by multiple MPs) into [[single-member constituencies]], roughly corresponding to population patterns. With the foundation of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] not to come till 1906, many trade unions allied themselves with the Liberals. In areas with working class majorities, in particular [[Coal mining in the United Kingdom|coal-mining]] areas, Lib-Lab candidates were popular, and they received sponsorship and endorsement from [[trade union]]s. In the first election after the Act was passed (1885), thirteen were elected, up from two in 1874. The Third Reform Act also facilitated the demise of the Whig old guard; in two-member constituencies, it was common to pair a Whig and a radical under the Liberal banner. After the Third Reform Act, fewer former Whigs were selected as candidates.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Pearce|first1=Robert |last2=Stearn|first2=Roger |title=Access to History, Government and Reform: Britain 1815–1918|edition=2|page=74|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=2000}}</ref>

==== Reform policies ====
A broad range of interventionist reforms were introduced by the 1892–1895 Liberal government. Amongst other measures, standards of accommodation and of teaching in schools were improved, factory inspection was made more stringent, and ministers used their powers to increase the wages and reduce the working hours of large numbers of male workers employed by the state.<ref>[[Kenneth O. Morgan]], ''The Age of Lloyd George: Liberal Party and British Politics, 1890–1929''.</ref>{{page needed|date=September 2018}}

Historian Walter L. Arnstein concludes:

{{quote|Notable as the Gladstonian reforms had been, they had almost all remained within the nineteenth-century Liberal tradition of gradually removing the religious, economic, and political barriers that prevented men of varied creeds and classes from exercising their individual talents in order to improve themselves and their society. As the third quarter of the century drew to a close, the essential bastions of [[Victorian era|Victorianism]] still held firm: respectability; a government of aristocrats and gentlemen now influenced not only by middle-class merchants and manufacturers but also by industrious working people; a prosperity that seemed to rest largely on the tenets of [[laissez-faire economics]]; and a Britannia that ruled the waves and many a dominion beyond.<ref>Walter L. Arnstein, ''Britain Yesterday and Today: 1832 the Present'' (6th ed. 1992), p. 125.</ref>}}

=== After Gladstone ===
{{Main|Liberal government, 1892–1895}}
Gladstone finally retired in 1894. Gladstone's support for Home Rule deeply divided the party, and it lost its upper and upper-middle-class base, while keeping support among Protestant nonconformists and the Celtic fringe. Historian [[R. C. K. Ensor]] reports that after 1886, the main Liberal Party was deserted by practically the entire whig peerage and the great majority of the upper-class and upper-middle-class members. High prestige London clubs that had a Liberal base were deeply split. Ensor notes that, "London society, following the known views of the Queen, practically ostracized home rulers."<ref>R. C. K. Ensor, ''England 1870–1914'' (1936), p. 207.</ref>

The new Liberal leader was the ineffectual [[Lord Rosebery]]. He led the party to a heavy defeat in the [[1895 United Kingdom general election|1895 general election]].<ref>Paul A. Readman, "The 1895 general election and political change in late Victorian Britain." ''Historical Journal'' 42.02 (1999): 467–493.</ref>

=== Liberal factions ===
{{Main|Liberal League (United Kingdom)|Liberal Imperialists}}
The Liberal Party lacked a unified ideological base in 1906.<ref>Ian Packer, "The great Liberal landslide: the 1906 General Election in perspective." ''Historian'' 89#1 (2006): 8–16.</ref> It contained numerous contradictory and hostile factions, such as imperialists and supporters of the Boers;<ref>John W. Auld, "The Liberal Pro-Boers." ''Journal of British Studies'' 14#2 (1975): 78–101.</ref> near-socialists and laissez-faire [[classical liberals]]; [[suffragette]]s and [[Anti-suffragism|opponents]] of [[Women's suffrage in the United Kingdom|women's suffrage]];<ref>Martin Pugh, ''Votes for women in Britain 1867–1928'' (1994),</ref> [[Anti-war movement|antiwar elements]] and supporters of the [[Entente Cordiale|military alliance with France]].<ref>Nabil M. Kaylani, "Liberal Politics and British-Foreign-Office 1906-1912-Overview." ''International Review of History and Political Science'' 12.3 (1975): 17–48.</ref> [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|Nonconformist]]s – [[Protestantism in the United Kingdom|Protestants]] outside the [[Anglican]] fold – were a powerful element, dedicated to opposing the [[established church]] in terms of education and taxation.<ref>G. I. T.  Machin, "Gladstone and Nonconformity in the 1860s: The Formation of an Alliance." ''Historical Journal'' 17, no. 2 (1974): 347–64. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638302 online].</ref> However, the non-conformists were losing support amid society at large and played a lesser role in party affairs after 1900.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1849549|title = English Nonconformity and the Decline of Liberalism|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 63|issue = 2|pages = 352–363|last1 = Glaser|first1 = John F.|year = 1958|doi = 10.2307/1849549}}</ref> The party, furthermore, also included Irish Catholics, and secularists from the labour movement. Many Conservatives (including [[Winston Churchill]]) had recently protested against high tariff moves by the Conservatives by switching to the anti-tariff Liberal camp, but it was unclear how many old Conservative traits they brought along, especially on military and naval issues.<ref>{{cite book|author=F. McDonough|title=The Conservative Party and Anglo-German Relations, 1905–1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mEOEDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA89|year=2007|page=89|publisher=Springer |isbn=9780230210912}}</ref>

The middle-class business, professional and intellectual communities were generally strongholds, although some old aristocratic families played important roles as well. The working-class element was moving rapidly toward the newly emerging Labour Party. One uniting element was widespread agreement on the use of politics and Parliament as a device to upgrade and improve society and to reform politics. All Liberals were outraged when Conservatives used their majority in the House of Lords to block reform legislation.<ref>R. C. K. Ensor, ''England 1870–1914'' (1936), pp. 384–420.</ref>   In the House of Lords, the Liberals had lost most of their members, who in the 1890s "became Conservative in all but name." The government could force the unwilling king to create new Liberal peers, and that threat did prove decisive in the battle for dominance of Commons over Lords in 1911.<ref>Kenneth Rose, ''King George V'' (1984) pp 113 for quote, 121; Ensor. p. 430.</ref>

=== Rise of New Liberalism ===
{{main|Liberal welfare reforms|People's Budget}}
The late nineteenth century saw the emergence of New Liberalism within the Liberal Party, which advocated state intervention as a means of guaranteeing freedom and removing obstacles to it such as poverty and unemployment. The policies of the New Liberalism are now known as [[social liberalism]].<ref>[[Michael Freeden]], ''The New Liberalism: An Ideology of Social Reform'' (Oxford UP, 1978).</ref>

[[File:ChurchillGeorge0001.jpg|thumb|Liberal politicians [[David Lloyd George]] and [[Winston Churchill]] enacted the 1909 [[People's Budget]] which specifically aimed at the redistribution of wealth.]]
The New Liberals included intellectuals like [[L. T. Hobhouse]], and [[John A. Hobson]]. They saw individual liberty as something achievable only under favourable social and economic circumstances.<ref name="adams">{{Cite book|last=Adams|first=Ian|title=Political Ideology Today (Politics Today)|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]|isbn=978-0719060205|year=2001|location=Manchester|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalideolog0000adam}}</ref> In their view, the poverty, squalor, and ignorance in which many people lived made it impossible for freedom and individuality to flourish. New Liberals believed that these conditions could be ameliorated only through collective action coordinated by a strong, welfare-oriented, and interventionist state.<ref>''The Routledge encyclopaedia of philosophy'' (2016), p. 599 [https://www.rep.routledge.com/ online].</ref>

After the historic 1906 victory, the Liberal Party introduced multiple reforms on a range of issues, including [[health insurance]], [[unemployment insurance]], and [[pension]]s for elderly workers, thereby laying the groundwork for the future British [[welfare state]]. Some proposals failed, such as licensing fewer pubs, or rolling back Conservative educational policies. The [[People's Budget]] of 1909, championed by [[David Lloyd George]] and fellow Liberal [[Winston Churchill]], introduced unprecedented taxes on the wealthy in Britain and radical social welfare programmes to the country's policies.<ref>Geoffrey Lee – [http://www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk/images/inside_image/The_People_Budget.pdf "The People's Budget: An Edwardian Tragedy"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120305182535/http://www.shepheard-walwyn.co.uk/images/inside_image/The_People_Budget.pdf|date=5 March 2012}}</ref> In the Liberal camp, as noted by one study, "the Budget was on the whole enthusiastically received."<ref>''Mr Balfour's Poodle'' by [[Roy Jenkins]], 2011</ref> It was the first budget with the expressed intent of redistributing wealth among the public. It imposed increased taxes on luxuries, liquor, tobacco, high incomes, and land – [[Progressive tax|taxation that fell heavily on the rich]]. The new money was to be made available for new welfare programmes as well as new battleships. In 1911 Lloyd George succeeded in putting through Parliament his [[National Insurance Act]], making provision for sickness and invalidism, and this was followed by his [[Unemployment Insurance Act 1920|Unemployment Insurance Act]].<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1852870|title = David Lloyd George: Land, the Budget, and Social Reform|journal = The American Historical Review|volume = 81|issue = 5|pages = 1058–1066|last1 = Gilbert|first1 = Bentley Brinkerhoff|year = 1976|doi = 10.2307/1852870}}</ref>

Historian Peter Weiler argues:
{{blockquote|Although still partially informed by older Liberal concerns for character, self-reliance, and the capitalist market, this legislation nevertheless, marked a significant shift in Liberal approaches to the state and social reform, approaches that later governments would slowly expand and that would grow into the welfare state after the Second World War. What was new in these reforms was the underlying assumption that the state could be a positive force, that the measure of individual freedom... was not how much the state left people alone, but whether it gave them the capacity to fill themselves as individuals.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Peter |last=Weiler |title=New Liberalism |encyclopedia=Twentieth-century Britain: an encyclopedia |publisher=Garland |year=1995 |pages=564–65}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Weiler |title=The New Liberalism: Liberal Social Theory in Great Britain, 1889–1914 |year=2016}}</ref>}}

Contrasting Old Liberalism with New Liberalism, [[David Lloyd George]] noted in a 1908 speech the following:
{{blockquote|[Old Liberals] used the natural discontent of the people with the poverty and precariousness of the means of subsistence as a motive power to win for them a better, more influential, and more honourable status in the citizenship of their native land. The new Liberalism, while pursuing this great political ideal with unflinching energy, devotes a part of its endeavour also to the removing of the immediate causes of discontent. It is true that man cannot live by bread alone. It is equally true that a man cannot live without bread.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://liberalhistory.org.uk/history/the-new-liberalism/|title=The New Liberalism · Liberal History|first=Duncan|last=Brack}}</ref>}}

=== Liberal zenith ===
{{main|Liberal government, 1905–1915}}
[[File:United Kingdom general election 1906.svg|thumb|The results of the [[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906 election]]]]
[[File:Ten Years of Toryism.jpg|thumb|left|Liberal poster c. 1905–1910, clockwise from the left: [[Joseph Chamberlain]] (satirised as an unmarried mother leaving her baby at a [[Foundling hospital]]) abandons his commitment to old age pensions after failing to reach agreement with the [[Friendly Societies]]; Chancellor [[Austen Chamberlain]] threatens duties on consumer items which had been removed by Gladstone (in the picture on the wall); [[Chinese South Africans#Contracted gold miners (1904–1910)|Chinese indentured labour in South Africa]]; [[John Bull]] contemplates his vote; and Joseph Chamberlain and [[Arthur Balfour]] (who favoured retaliatory tariffs) wearing top hats. The heading "[[ratepayers]] money for sectarian schools" refers to the [[Education Act 1902]].]]
The Liberals languished in opposition for a decade while the coalition of Salisbury and Chamberlain held power. The 1890s were marred by infighting between the three principal successors to Gladstone, party leader [[William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|William Harcourt]], former prime minister [[Lord Rosebery]], and Gladstone's personal secretary, [[John Morley]]. This intrigue finally led Harcourt and Morley to resign their positions in 1898 as they continued to be at loggerheads with Rosebery over Irish home rule and issues relating to imperialism. Replacing Harcourt as party leader was Sir [[Henry Campbell-Bannerman]]. Harcourt's resignation briefly muted the turmoil in the party, but the beginning of the [[Second Boer War]] soon nearly broke the party apart, with Rosebery and a circle of supporters including important future Liberal figures [[H. H. Asquith]], [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]] and [[Richard Burdon Haldane]] forming a clique dubbed the Liberal Imperialists that supported the government in the prosecution of the war. On the other side, more radical members of the party formed a Pro-Boer faction that denounced the conflict and called for an immediate end to hostilities. Quickly rising to prominence among the Pro-Boers was David Lloyd George, a relatively new MP and a master of rhetoric, who took advantage of having a national stage to speak out on a controversial issue to make his name in the party. Harcourt and Morley also sided with this group, though with slightly different aims. Campbell-Bannerman tried to keep these forces together at the head of a moderate Liberal rump, but in 1901 he delivered a speech on the government's "methods of barbarism" in South Africa that pulled him further to the left and nearly tore the party in two. The party was saved after Salisbury's retirement in 1902 when his successor, [[Arthur Balfour]], pushed a series of unpopular initiatives such as the [[Education Act 1902]] and Joseph Chamberlain called for a new system of protectionist tariffs.

Campbell-Bannerman was able to rally the party around the traditional liberal platform of free trade and land reform and led them to [[1906 United Kingdom general election|the greatest election victory]] in their history. This would prove the last time the Liberals won a majority in their own right.<ref name="LawrenceODNB">{{cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-95348|title=The general election of 1906|last=Goldman|first=Lawrence|author-link = Lawrence Goldman|date=25 May 2006|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/95348|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8|access-date=9 July 2021}}</ref><ref>A. K. Russell, ''Liberal landslide : the general election of 1906'' (1973).</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2021}}  Although he presided over a large majority, [[Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman]] was overshadowed by his ministers, most notably [[H. H. Asquith]] at the Exchequer, [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon|Edward Grey]] at the Foreign Office, [[Richard Burdon Haldane]] at the War Office and [[David Lloyd George]] at the Board of Trade. Campbell-Bannerman retired in 1908 and died soon after. He was succeeded by Asquith, who stepped up the government's radicalism. Lloyd George succeeded Asquith at the Exchequer and was in turn succeeded at the Board of Trade by [[Winston Churchill]], a recent defector from the Conservatives.

[[File:Asquith Q 42036.jpg|thumb|[[H. H. Asquith]]]]
The 1906 general election also represented a shift to the left by the Liberal Party. According to Rosemary Rees, almost half of the Liberal MPs elected in 1906 were supportive of the 'New Liberalism' (which advocated government action to improve people's lives),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YgtH8GFcFSYC&q=New%2520Liberal%2520MPs%25201906&pg=PA42|title=Britain, 1890–1939|last=Rees|first=Rosemary|date=2003-01-01|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=9780435327576|language=en}}</ref>) while claims were made that "five-sixths of the Liberal party are left wing."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K0jw3zg5iOsC&q=majority%2520liberal%2520MPs%2520radicals%2520left-wing%25201906&pg=PA29|title=Britain And the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–1911: Foreign Policy, Imperialism, And Dissent|last=Bonakdarian|first=Mansour|date=2006-01-01|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=9780815630425|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://wwwbiz.meijo-u.ac.jp/SEBM/ronso/no4_3/HANSEN.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://wwwbiz.meijo-u.ac.jp/SEBM/ronso/no4_3/HANSEN.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=The identification of ʻradicalsʼ in the British Parliament, 1906–1914|last=Hansen|first=P.}}</ref> Other historians, however, have questioned the extent to which the Liberal Party experienced a leftward shift; according to Robert C. Self however, only between 50 and 60 Liberal MPs out of the 400 in the parliamentary party after 1906 were Social Radicals, with a core of 20 to 30.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VcEeBAAAQBAJ|title=Evolution of the British Party System: 1885–1940|last=Self|first=Robert C.|date=2014-07-30|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781317877820|language=en}}</ref> Nevertheless, important junior offices were held in the cabinet by what Duncan Tanner has termed "genuine New Liberals, Centrist reformers, and [[Fabian Society|Fabian]] collectivists,"<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2XWGuS25msYC|title=Political Change and the Labour Party 1900–1918|last=Tanner|first=Duncan|date=2003-02-13|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9780521530538|language=en}}</ref> and much legislation was pushed through by the Liberals in government. This included the regulation of working hours, [[National Insurance]] and welfare.

[[File:Punch cartoon 28 April 1909.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Cartoonist [[John Bernard Partridge]] depicts Lloyd George as a giant with a cudgel labelled "Budget" in reference to his [[People's Budget]] while "a plutocrat" cowers beneath the table, ''[[Punch (magazine)|Punch]]'' 28 April 1909. The caption, not shown, reads "[[Fee-fi-fo-fum|Fee Fi Fo Phat]], I smell the blood of a plutocrat. Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to make my bread,"<ref>Morgan 1974, p.69</ref>]]
A political battle erupted over the [[People's Budget]], which was rejected by the [[House of Lords]] and for which the government obtained an electoral mandate at the [[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January 1910 election]]. The election resulted in a [[hung parliament]], with the government left dependent on the [[Irish Parliamentary Party|Irish Nationalists]]. Although the Lords now passed the budget, the government wished to curtail their power to block legislation. Asquith was required by King George V to fight a second general election in [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]] (whose result was little changed from that in January) before he agreed, if necessary, to create hundreds of Liberals peers. Faced with that threat, the Lords voted to give up their veto power and allowed the passage of the [[Parliament Act 1911]].

As the price of Irish support, Asquith was now forced to introduce a [[Third Home Rule Act|third Home Rule bill]] in 1912. Since the House of Lords no longer had the power to block the bill, but only to delay it for two years, it was due to become law in 1914. The Unionist [[Ulster Volunteers]], led by Sir [[Edward Carson]], launched a campaign of opposition that included the threat of a provisional government and armed resistance in [[Northern Ireland|Ulster]]. The [[Ulster Protestants]] had the full support of the Conservatives, whose leader, [[Bonar Law]], was of [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster-Scots]] descent. Government plans to deploy troops into Ulster had to be cancelled after the threat of mass resignation of their commissions by army officers in March 1914 (''see [[Curragh Incident]]''). Ireland seemed to be on the brink of civil war when the [[First World War]] broke out in August 1914. Asquith had offered the Six Counties (later to become [[Northern Ireland]]) an opt out from Home Rule for six years (i.e., until after two more general elections were likely to have taken place) but the Nationalists refused to agree to permanent [[Partition of Ireland]]. Historian [[George Dangerfield]] has argued that the multiplicity of crises in 1910 to 1914, political and industrial, so weakened the Liberal coalition before the war broke out that it marked the ''[[Strange Death of Liberal England]]''.<ref>George Dangerfield, ''The Strange Death of Liberal England: 1910–1914'' (1935).</ref> Political scientist Harold Webb Jr. also concludes that the combination of overambitious reforms, internal divisions and external political pressures set the stage for the Party's post-World War I fragmentation and decline.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Webb |first=Harold |url=https://archive.org/details/harold-webb-jr-doctoral-dissertation-brown-university-june-1957-liberal-party-great-britain-1906-1914/mode/2up?q=%22harold+webb+jr.%22 |title=The Domestic Policies Of The Liberal Party Of Great Britain 1906 1914 The Effect Upon The Future Of The Party |date=June 1957 |publisher=Brown University |location=Providence RI}}</ref> However, most historians date the collapse to the crisis of the First World War.

=== Decline ===
{{Further|History of the United Kingdom during the First World War|Asquith coalition ministry|}}

The Liberal Party might have survived a short war, but the totality of the Great War called for measures that the Party had long rejected.  The result was the permanent destruction of the ability of the Liberal Party to lead a government.  Historian [[Robert Blake, Baron Blake|Robert Blake]] explains the dilemma:
{{blockquote|[T]he Liberals were traditionally the party of freedom of speech, conscience and trade. They were against jingoism, heavy armaments and compulsion. [...] Liberals were neither wholehearted nor unanimous about conscription, censorship,  the [[Defence of the Realm Act]], severity toward aliens and pacifists, direction of labour and industry. The Conservatives [...] had no such misgivings.<ref name="Blake">Robert Blake, ''The Decline of Power: 1915–1964'' (1985), p. 3.</ref>}}

Blake further notes that it was the Liberals, not the Conservatives who needed the moral outrage of Belgium to justify going to war, while the Conservatives called for intervention from the start of the crisis on the grounds of ''realpolitik'' and the balance of power.<ref name="Blake" /> However, Lloyd George and Churchill were zealous supporters of the war, and gradually forced the old peace-orientated Liberals out.

Asquith was blamed for the poor British performance in the first year. Since the Liberals ran the war without consulting the Conservatives, there were heavy partisan attacks. However, even Liberal commentators were dismayed by the lack of energy at the top. At the time, public opinion was intensely hostile, both in the media and in the street, against any young man in civilian garb and labeled as a slacker. The leading Liberal newspaper, the ''[[Manchester Guardian]]'' complained:
{{blockquote|The fact that the Government has not dared to challenge the nation to rise above itself, is one among many signs. [...] The war is, in fact, not being taken seriously. [...] How can any slacker be blamed when the Government itself is slack.<ref>''Manchester Guardian'' 1 May 1915, editorial, in {{cite book|author=Trevor Wilson|title=The Downfall of the Liberal Party, 1914–1935|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0PyvNxXVMg4C&pg=PT37|year=1966|page=51|publisher=Faber & Faber |isbn=9780571280223}}</ref>}}

Asquith's Liberal government was brought down in {{Nowrap|May 1915}}, due in particular to a [[Shell Crisis of 1915|crisis in inadequate artillery shell production]] and the protest resignation of [[Admiral Fisher]] over the disastrous [[Gallipoli Campaign]] against Turkey. Reluctant to face doom in an election, Asquith formed a new coalition government on 25 May, with the majority of the new cabinet coming from his own Liberal party and the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Unionist (Conservative) party]], along with a token Labour representation. The new government lasted a year and a half and was the last time Liberals controlled the government.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 1876582|title = Asquith's Predicament, 1914–1918|journal = The Journal of Modern History|volume = 39|issue = 3|pages = 283–303|last1 = McGill|first1 = Barry|year = 1967|doi = 10.1086/240083|s2cid = 144038154}}</ref> The analysis of historian [[A. J. P. Taylor]] is that the British people were so deeply divided over numerous issues, but on all sides, there was growing distrust of the Asquith government. There was no agreement whatsoever on wartime issues. The leaders of the two parties realized that embittered debates in Parliament would further undermine popular morale and so the House of Commons did not once discuss the war before May 1915. Taylor argues:<ref>{{cite book|author=A.J.P. Taylor|title=English History, 1914–1945|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sb0RDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA17|year=1965|page=17|publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=9780198217152}}</ref>
{{blockquote|The Unionists, by and large, regarded Germany as a dangerous rival, and rejoiced at the chance to destroy her. They meant to fight a hard-headed war by ruthless methods; they condemned Liberal 'softness' before the war and now. The Liberals insisted on remaining high-minded. Many of them had come to support the war only when the Germans invaded Belgium. [...] Entering the war for idealistic motives, the Liberals wished to fight it by noble means and found it harder to abandon their principles than to endure defeat in the field.}}

The 1915 coalition fell apart at the end of 1916, when the Conservatives withdrew their support from Asquith and gave it instead to Lloyd George, who became prime minister at the head of a new coalition largely made up of Conservatives.<ref>Kenneth O. Morgan, "7 December 1916: Asquith, Lloyd George and the Crisis of Liberalism." ''Parliamentary History'' 36.3 (2017): 361–371.</ref> Asquith and his followers moved to the opposition benches in Parliament and the Liberal Party was deeply split once again.<ref>Trevor Wilson, ''The Downfall of the Liberal Party: 1914–1935'' (1966), pp. 90–131.</ref>

=== Lloyd George as a Liberal heading a Conservative coalition ===
{{Main|Lloyd George ministry|Independent Liberal Party (UK, 1918)|National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)}}
Lloyd George remained a Liberal all his life, but he abandoned many standard Liberal principles in his crusade to win the war at all costs. He insisted on strong government controls over business as opposed to the ''[[laissez-faire]]'' attitudes of traditional Liberals. in 1915–16 he had insisted on conscription of young men into the Army, a position that deeply troubled his old colleagues. That brought him and a few like-minded Liberals into the new coalition on the ground long occupied by Conservatives. There was no more planning for world peace or liberal treatment of Germany, nor discomfit with aggressive and authoritarian measures of state power. More deadly to the future of the party, says historian Trevor Wilson, was its repudiation by ideological Liberals, who decided sadly that it no longer represented their principles. Finally, the presence of the vigorous new Labour Party on the left gave a new home to voters disenchanted with the Liberal performance.<ref>Trevor Wilson, ''The Downfall of the Liberal Party: 1914–1935'' (1966), pp. 23–48.</ref>

The last majority Liberal Government in Britain was elected in 1906. The years preceding the First World War were marked by worker strikes and civil unrest and saw many violent confrontations between civilians and the police and armed forces. Other issues of the period included [[women's suffrage]] and the [[Irish Home Rule]] movement. After the carnage of 1914–1918, the democratic reforms of the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] instantly tripled the number of people entitled to vote in Britain from seven to twenty-one million. The Labour Party benefited most from this huge change in the electorate, forming its [[First Labour Government (UK)|first minority government in 1924]].<ref>A. J. P. Taylor, ''English History, 1914–1945'' (1965).</ref>

[[File:David Lloyd George.jpg|thumb|David Lloyd George]]
In the [[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918 general election]], Lloyd George, hailed as "the Man Who Won the War", led his coalition into a [[khaki election]]. Lloyd George and the Conservative leader [[Bonar Law]] wrote a joint letter of support to candidates to indicate they were considered the official Coalition candidates—this "[[The Coalition Coupon|coupon]]", as it became known, was issued against many sitting Liberal MPs, often to devastating effect, though not against Asquith himself. The coalition won a massive victory: Labour increased their position slightly, but the Asquithian Liberals were decimated. Those remaining Liberal MPs who were opposed to the Coalition Government went into opposition under the parliamentary leadership of [[Donald Maclean (British politician)|Sir Donald MacLean]] who also became [[Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom)|Leader of the Opposition]]. Asquith, who had appointed MacLean, remained as overall Leader of the Liberal Party even though he lost his seat in 1918. Asquith [[Paisley by-election, 1920|returned to Parliament in 1920]] and resumed leadership. Between 1919 and 1923, the anti-Lloyd George Liberals were called Asquithian Liberals, [[Wee Free]] Liberals<ref>{{cite book|last1=Beaverbrook|first1=Lord|title=The Decline and Fall of Lloyd George|date=1963|publisher=Duell, Sloan and Pearce|location=New York|pages=290–291|edition=first|url=https://archive.org/stream/declineandfallof006894mbp#page/n319/mode/2up/search/wee|access-date=30 December 2017}}</ref> or [[Independent Liberal Party (UK, 1918)|Independent Liberals]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Douglas|first=Roy|author-link=Roy Douglas (academic)|title=The History of the Liberal Party, 1895–1970|year=1971|publisher=Sidgwick & Jackson|location=London|isbn=0283484772|page=133|chapter=8: The Hard-Faced Men}}</ref>

Lloyd George was increasingly under the influence of the rejuvenated Conservative party who numerically dominated the coalition. In 1922, the Conservative backbenchers [[Carlton Club meeting|rebelled]] against the continuation of the coalition, citing, in particular, Lloyd George's plan for war with Turkey in the [[Chanak Crisis]], and his corrupt sale of honours. He resigned as prime minister and was succeeded by [[Bonar Law]].

At the [[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922]] and [[1923 United Kingdom general election|1923 elections]], the Liberals won barely a third of the vote and only a quarter of the seats in the House of Commons as many radical voters abandoned the divided Liberals and went over to Labour. In 1922, Labour became the official opposition. A reunion of the two warring factions took place in 1923 when the new Conservative prime minister [[Stanley Baldwin]] committed his party to protective tariffs, causing the Liberals to reunite in support of free trade. The party gained ground in the [[1923 United Kingdom general election|1923 general election]] but made most of its gains from Conservatives whilst losing ground to Labour—a sign of the party's direction for many years to come. The party remained the third largest in the House of Commons, but the Conservatives had lost their majority. There was much speculation and fear ''[by whom?]'' about the prospect of a Labour government and comparatively little about a Liberal government, even though it could have plausibly presented an experienced team of ministers compared to Labour's almost complete lack of experience as well as offering a middle ground that could obtain support from both Conservatives and Labour in crucial Commons divisions. However, instead of trying to force the opportunity to form a Liberal government, Asquith decided instead to allow Labour the chance of office in the belief that they would prove incompetent, and this would set the stage for a revival of Liberal fortunes at Labour's expense, but it was a fatal error.

[[File:UK popular vote.svg|thumb|left|upright=1.35|Share of the vote received by Conservatives (blue), Whigs/Liberals/Liberal Democrats (orange), Labour (red) and others (grey) in general elections since 1832<ref>Table 2.01 "Summary Results of General Elections 1832–2005 (UK)", ''British electoral facts, 1832–2006'', by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, 7th edition, 2007, {{ISBN|978-0-7546-2712-8}}, p. 59.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/election2010/results|title=Election 2010 Results|work=BBC News}}</ref> shows that following success as the successor to the Whig party, the party's share of the popular vote plummeted after the First World War as it lost votes to the new Labour party and fractured into groups such as the National and Coalition Liberals]]
Labour was determined to destroy the Liberals and become the sole party of the left. [[Ramsay MacDonald]] was forced into a [[1924 United Kingdom general election|snap election in 1924]] and although his government was defeated, he achieved his objective of virtually wiping the Liberals out as many more radical voters now moved to Labour whilst moderate middle-class Liberal voters concerned about socialism moved to the Conservatives. The Liberals were reduced to a mere forty seats in Parliament, only seven of which had been won against candidates from both parties and none of these formed a coherent area of Liberal survival. The party seemed finished, and during this period some Liberals, such as Churchill, went over to the Conservatives while others went over to Labour. Several Labour ministers of later generations, such as [[Michael Foot]] and [[Tony Benn]], were the sons of Liberal MPs.

Asquith finally resigned as Liberal leader in 1926 (he died in 1928). Lloyd George, now party leader, began a drive to produce coherent policies on many key issues of the day. In the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 general election]], he made a final bid to return the Liberals to the political mainstream, with an ambitious programme of state stimulation of the economy called ''We Can Conquer Unemployment!'', largely written for him by the Liberal economist [[John Maynard Keynes]]. The Liberal Party stood in Northern Ireland for the first and only time in the [[1929 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland|1929 general election]], gaining 17% of the vote, but won no seats. Nationally the Liberals gained ground, but once again it was at the Conservatives' expense whilst also losing seats to Labour. Indeed, the urban areas of the country suffering heavily from [[Interwar unemployment and poverty in the United Kingdom|unemployment]], which might have been expected to respond the most to the radical economic policies of the Liberals, instead gave the party its worst results. By contrast, most of the party's seats were won either due to the absence of a candidate from one of the other parties or in rural areas on the [[Celtic fringe]], where local evidence suggests that economic ideas were at best peripheral to the electorate's concerns. The Liberals now found themselves with 59 members, holding the balance of power in a Parliament where Labour was the largest party but lacked an overall majority. Lloyd George offered a degree of support to the Labour government in the hope of winning concessions, including a degree of electoral reform to introduce the [[alternative vote]], but this support was to prove bitterly divisive as the Liberals increasingly divided between those seeking to gain what Liberal goals they could achieve, those who preferred a Conservative government to a Labour one and vice versa.<ref>[[Charles Loch Mowat]], ''Britain Between the Wars, 1918–1940'' (1955).</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

=== Splits over the National Government ===
{{Main|National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Government (United Kingdom)}}
[[File:Gws samuel 01.jpg|thumb|upright=0.65|[[Herbert Samuel]]]]
A group of Liberal MPs led by [[Sir John Simon]] opposed the Liberal Party's support for the minority Labour government. They preferred to reach an accommodation with the Conservatives. In 1931 MacDonald's Labour government fell apart in response to the [[Great Depression in the United Kingdom|Great Depression]]. Macdonald agreed to lead a [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Government]] of all parties, which passed a budget to deal with the financial crisis. When few Labour MPs backed the National government, it became clear that the Conservatives had the clear majority of government supporters. They then forced MacDonald to call a [[1931 United Kingdom general election|general election]]. Lloyd George called for the party to leave the National Government but [[Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)|only a few MPs and candidates followed]]. The majority, led by [[Sir Herbert Samuel]], decided to contest the elections as part of the government. The bulk of Liberal MPs supported the government, – the [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|Liberal Nationals]] (officially the "National Liberals" after 1947) led by Simon, also known as "Simonites", and the "Samuelites" or "official Liberals", led by Samuel who remained as the official party. Both groups secured about 34 MPs but proceeded to diverge even further after the election, with the Liberal Nationals remaining supporters of the government throughout its life. There were to be a succession of discussions about them rejoining the Liberals, but these usually foundered on the issues of free trade and continued support for the National Government. The one significant reunification came in 1946 when the Liberal and Liberal National party organisations in London merged. The National Liberals, as they were called by then, were gradually absorbed into the Conservative Party, finally merging in 1968.

The official Liberals found themselves a tiny minority within a government committed to [[protectionism]]. Slowly they found this issue to be one they could not support. In early 1932 it was agreed to suspend the principle of [[Cabinet collective responsibility|collective responsibility]] to allow the Liberals to oppose the introduction of tariffs. Later in 1932 the Liberals resigned their ministerial posts over the introduction of the [[Ottawa Conference|Ottawa Agreement]] on [[Imperial Preference]]. However, they remained sitting on the government benches supporting it in Parliament, though in the country local Liberal activists bitterly opposed the government. Finally in late 1933 the Liberals crossed the floor of the House of Commons and went into complete opposition. By this point their number of MPs was severely depleted. In the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 general election]], just 17 Liberal MPs were elected, along with Lloyd George and three followers as [[Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)|independent Liberals]]. Immediately after the election the two groups reunited, though Lloyd George declined to play much of a formal role in his old party. Over the next ten years there would be further defections as MPs deserted to either the Liberal Nationals or Labour. Yet there were a few recruits, such as [[Clement Davies]], who had deserted to the National Liberals in 1931 but now returned to the party during [[World War II]] and who would lead it after the war.

=== Near extinction ===
Samuel had lost his seat in the [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935 election]] and the leadership of the party fell to [[Sir Archibald Sinclair]]. With many traditional domestic Liberal policies now regarded as irrelevant, he focused the party on opposition to both the rise of [[Fascism in Europe]] and the [[appeasement]] foreign policy of the [[National Government (1937–1939)|National Government]], arguing that intervention was needed, in contrast to the Labour calls for pacifism. Despite the party's weaknesses, Sinclair gained a high profile as he sought to recall the [[Midlothian Campaign]] and once more revitalise the Liberals as the party of a strong foreign policy.

In 1940, they joined Churchill's wartime coalition government, with Sinclair serving as [[Secretary of State for Air]], the last British Liberal to hold Cabinet rank office for seventy years. However, it was a sign of the party's lack of importance that they were not included in the [[War Cabinet]]; some leading party members founded [[Radical Action]], a group which called for liberal candidates to break the [[war-time electoral pact]].<ref>Chris Cook, ''A Short History of the Liberal Party: 1900 – 2001'', pp. 268–269.</ref> At the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]], Sinclair and many of his colleagues lost their seats to both Conservatives and Labour and the party returned just 12 MPs to Westminster,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/in_depth/election_battles/1945_over.stm|title=1945: Labour landslide buries Churchill|work=The election battles 1945–1997|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> but this was just the beginning of the decline. In [[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]], the general election saw the Liberals return just nine MPs.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/in_depth/election_battles/1950_over.stm|title=1950: Labour limps home|work=The election battles 1945–1997|publisher=BBC News}}</ref> Another [[1951 United Kingdom general election|general election was called in 1951]] and the Liberals were left with just six MPs and all but one of them were aided by the fact that the Conservatives refrained from fielding candidates in those constituencies.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/vote2001/in_depth/election_battles/1951_over.stm|title=1951: Churchill's return|work=The election battles 1945–1997|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

In 1957, this total fell to five when one of the Liberal MPs died and the subsequent by-election was lost to the Labour Party, which selected the former Liberal Deputy Leader [[Megan Lloyd George]] as its own candidate. The Liberal Party seemed close to extinction. During this low period, it was often joked that Liberal MPs could hold meetings in the back of one taxi.

=== Liberal revival ===

Through the 1950s and into the 1960s, the Liberals survived only because a handful of constituencies in rural [[Scotland]] and [[Wales]] clung to their Liberal traditions, whilst in two English towns, [[Bolton]] and [[Huddersfield]], local Liberals and Conservatives agreed to each contest only one of the town's two seats. [[Jo Grimond]], for example, who became [[Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)|Leader of the Liberal Party]] in 1956, was MP for the remote [[Orkney and Shetland (UK Parliament constituency)|Orkney and Shetland]] islands. Under his leadership a Liberal revival began, marked by the [[1962 Orpington by-election|Orpington by-election]] of March 1962 which was won by [[Eric Lubbock]]. There, the Liberals won a seat in the London suburbs for the first time since 1935.

The Liberals became the first of the major British political parties to advocate [[United Kingdom membership of the European Economic Area|British membership of the European Economic Community]]. Grimond also sought an intellectual revival of the party, seeking to position it as a non-socialist radical alternative to the Conservative government of the day. In particular he canvassed the support of the young post-war university students and recent graduates, appealing to younger voters in a way that many of his recent predecessors had not, and asserting a new strand of Liberalism for the post-war world.

The new middle-class suburban generation began to find the Liberals' policies attractive again. Under Grimond (who retired in 1967) and his successor, [[Jeremy Thorpe]], the Liberals regained the status of a serious third force in British politics, polling up to 20% of the vote, but unable to break the duopoly of Labour and Conservative and win more than fourteen seats in the Commons. An additional problem was competition in the Liberal heartlands in Scotland and Wales from the [[Scottish National Party]] and [[Plaid Cymru]] who both grew as electoral forces from the 1960s onwards. Although [[Emlyn Hooson]] held on to the seat of Montgomeryshire, upon [[Clement Davies]] death in 1962, the party lost five Welsh seats between 1950 and 1966. In September 1966, the [[Welsh Liberal Party]] formed their own state party, moving the Liberal Party into a fully federal structure.<ref>Russell Deacon (2011), History of the Welsh Liberal party, Welsh Academic Press.</ref>{{page needed|date=July 2021}}

In local elections, [[Liverpool]] remained a Liberal stronghold, with the party taking the plurality of seats on the [[1973 United Kingdom local elections|elections]] to the new Liverpool Metropolitan Borough Council in 1973.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Jeffery|first=David|date=2017-08-01|title=The strange death of Tory Liverpool: Conservative electoral decline in Liverpool, 1945–1996|journal=British Politics|language=en|volume=12|issue=3|pages=386–407|doi=10.1057/s41293-016-0032-6|issn=1746-918X|doi-access=free}}</ref> On 26 July 1973, the party won two by-elections on the same day, in the [[1973 Isle of Ely by-election|Isle of Ely]] (with [[Clement Freud]]), and [[1973 Ripon by-election|Ripon]] (with [[David Austick]]). In the [[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974 general election]], the Conservative government of [[Edward Heath]] won a plurality of votes cast, but the Labour Party gained a plurality of seats. The Conservatives were unable to form a government due to the [[Ulster Unionist]] MPs refusing to support the Conservatives following the Northern Ireland [[Sunningdale Agreement]]. The Liberals obtained 6.1 million votes, the most it would ever achieve, and now held the balance of power in the Commons. Conservatives offered Thorpe the [[Home Office]] if he would join a coalition government with Heath. Thorpe was personally in favour of it, but the party insisted it would only agree pending a clear government commitment to introducing [[proportional representation]] (PR) and a change of prime minister. The former was unacceptable to Heath's cabinet and the latter to Heath personally, so the talks collapsed. Instead, a minority Labour government was formed under [[Harold Wilson]] but with no formal support from Thorpe. In the [[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974 general election]], the Liberals total vote slipped back slightly (and declined in each of the next three) and the Labour government won a wafer-thin majority.

Thorpe was subsequently forced to resign after allegations that he attempted to have his [[homosexual]] lover murdered by a hitman. The party's new leader, [[David Steel]], negotiated the [[Lib–Lab pact]] with Wilson's successor as prime minister, [[James Callaghan]]. According to this pact, the Liberals would support the government in crucial votes in exchange for some influence over policy. The agreement lasted from 1977 to 1978, but proved mostly fruitless, for two reasons: the Liberals' key demand of PR was rejected by most Labour MPs, whilst the contacts between Liberal spokespersons and Labour ministers often proved detrimental, such as between Treasury spokesperson [[John Pardoe]] and [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] [[Denis Healey]], who were mutually antagonistic.

=== Alliance, Liberal Democrats and reconstituted Liberal Party ===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:SDP-Liberal Alliance.png|thumb|upright=0.7|The symbol of the SDP–Liberal Alliance, combining the yellow and black diamond of the Liberals with the typeface of the Social Democrats]] -->
{{main|SDP–Liberal Alliance|Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Party (UK, 1989)}}
The Conservative Party under the leadership of [[Margaret Thatcher]] won the [[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979 general election]], placing the Labour Party back in opposition, which served to push the Liberals back into the margins.

In 1981, defectors from a moderate faction of the Labour Party, led by former Cabinet ministers [[Roy Jenkins]], [[David Owen]] and [[Shirley Williams]], founded the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]] (SDP). The new party and the Liberals quickly formed the SDP–Liberal Alliance, which for a while polled as high as 50% in the opinion polls and appeared capable of winning the next general election. Indeed, Steel was so confident of an Alliance victory that he told the 1981 Liberal conference, "Go back to your constituencies, and prepare for government!".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/3185313.stm|work=BBC News|title=Conference season's greatest hits|date=10 September 2003|access-date=7 April 2010|first=Ollie|last=Stone-Lee}}</ref>

However, the Alliance was overtaken in the polls by the Tories in the aftermath of the [[Falkland Islands War]] and at the [[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983 general election]] the Conservatives were re-elected by a landslide, with Labour once again forming the opposition. While the SDP–Liberal Alliance came close to Labour in terms of votes (a share of more than 25%), it only had 23 MPs compared to Labour's 209.<ref>{{cite book|editor1=Keith Laybourn |editor1-link = Keith Laybourn |editor2 = Christine F. Collette|title=Modern Britain Since 1979: A Reader|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-vZ7zHxs690C&pg=PA125|year=2003|publisher=I.B.Tauris|pages=125–128|isbn=9781860645969}}</ref> The Alliance's support was spread out across the country, and was not concentrated in enough areas to translate into seats.

In the [[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987 general election]], the Alliance's share of the votes fell slightly and it now had 22 MPs. In the election's aftermath Steel proposed a merger of the two parties. Most SDP members voted in favour of the merger, but SDP leader [[David Owen]] objected and continued to lead a "rump" SDP.

In March 1988, the Liberal Party and Social Democratic Party merged to create the Social and Liberal Democrats, renamed the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] in October 1989.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/1136223.stm|work=BBC News|title=SDP: Breaking the mould|date=25 January 2001}}</ref> Over two-thirds of Liberal members joined the merged party, along with all sitting MPs. Steel and SDP leader [[Robert Maclennan]] served briefly as interim leaders of the merged party.<ref>{{cite book|author=Peter Barberis|title=Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qps14mSlghcC&pg=PA302|year=2000|publisher=Continuum|pages=301–3|display-authors=etal|isbn=9780826458148}}</ref>

A group of Liberal opponents of the merger with the Social Democrats, including [[Michael Meadowcroft]] (the former Liberal MP for Leeds West) and Paul Wiggin (who served on [[Peterborough City Council]] as a Liberal), continued with a new party organisation under the name of the '[[Liberal Party (UK, 1989)|Liberal Party]]'. Meadowcroft joined the Liberal Democrats in 2007, but the Liberal Party as reconstituted in 1989 [[Liberal Party (UK, 1989) election results|continues to hold council seats and field candidates in Westminster Parliamentary elections]]. Only one of the twelve Liberal candidates in 2024 achieved 5% or more of the votes, resulting in all bar that one losing their deposits.

== Ideology ==
{{see also|Liberalism in the United Kingdom}}
{{Liberalism UK|Parties}}
[[File:Leeds Town Hall, General Election results.jpg|thumb|A crowd waits outside [[Leeds Town Hall]] to see them elect a Liberal Party candidate during the [[1880 United Kingdom general election|1880 general elections]].]]
During the 19th century, the Liberal Party was broadly in favour of what would today be called [[classical liberalism]], supporting ''[[laissez-faire]]'' economic policies such as [[free trade]] and [[Limited government|minimal government interference]] in the economy (this doctrine was usually termed [[Gladstonian liberalism]] after the [[Victorian era]] Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone). The Liberal Party favoured social reform, personal liberty, reducing the powers of [[the Crown]] and the [[Church of England]] (many of them were [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformists]]) and an extension of the electoral [[Suffrage|franchise]]. Sir [[William Vernon Harcourt (politician)|William Harcourt]], a prominent Liberal politician in the Victorian era, said this about [[liberalism]] in 1872: <blockquote>If there be any party which is more pledged than another to resist a policy of restrictive legislation, having for its object social coercion, that party is the Liberal party. (Cheers.) But liberty does not consist in making others do what you think right, (Hear, hear.) The difference between a free Government and a Government which is not free is principally this—that a Government which is not free interferes with everything it can, and a free Government interferes with nothing except what it must. A despotic Government tries to make everybody do what it wishes; a Liberal Government tries, as far as the safety of society will permit, to allow everybody to do as he wishes. It has been the tradition of the Liberal party consistently to maintain the doctrine of individual liberty. It is because they have done so that England is the place where people can do more what they please than in any other country in the world. [...] It is this practice of allowing one set of people to dictate to another set of people what they shall do, what they shall think, what they shall drink, when they shall go to bed, what they shall buy, and where they shall buy it, what wages they shall get and how they shall spend them, against which the Liberal party have always protested.<ref name="The Times 1872 p. 5">''The Times'' (31 December 1872), p. 5.</ref></blockquote>

The political terms of "modern", "progressive" or "new" Liberalism began to appear in the mid to late 1880s and became increasingly common to denote the tendency in the Liberal Party to favour an increased role for the state as more important than the classical liberal stress on self-help and freedom of choice.<ref>W. H. Greenleaf, ''The British Political Tradition. Volume II: The Ideological Heritage'' (London: Methuen, 1983), p. 143.</ref>

By the early 20th century, the Liberals stance began to shift towards "New Liberalism", what would today be called [[social liberalism]], namely a belief in personal liberty with a support for government intervention to provide social [[welfare spending|welfare]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact1_rev.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016104218/http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/education/bitesize/higher/history/liberal/impact1_rev.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=16 October 2007|title=Education Scotland – Higher Bitesize Revision – History – Liberal – Impact: Revision 1|work=BBC News|access-date=25 April 2010}}</ref> This shift was best exemplified by the Liberal government of [[H. H. Asquith]] and his Chancellor [[David Lloyd George]], whose [[Liberal reforms]] in the early 1900s created a basic [[welfare state]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev1.shtml|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721080347/http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/britain/liberalreformsrev1.shtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 July 2012|title=The Liberal reforms 1906–1914|access-date=28 February 2009|work=GCSE Bitesize|publisher=BBC News|quote=One government that is often seen as an example of 'reforming' by introducing positive changes that really improve peoples' lives is the Liberal government in Britain of 1906–1914. Many historians label this period the beginning of the welfare state [...]}}.</ref>

David Lloyd George adopted a programme at the [[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929 general election]] entitled ''We Can Conquer Unemployment!'', although by this stage the Liberals had declined to third-party status. The Liberals as expressed in the ''[[Liberal Yellow Book]]'' now regarded opposition to state intervention as being a characteristic of [[right-wing]] extremists.<ref>Liberal Industrial Inquiry, ''Britain's Industrial Future'' (London: Ernest Benn, 1928), p. 453.</ref>

After nearly becoming extinct in the 1940s and the 1950s, the Liberal Party revived its fortunes somewhat under the leadership of [[Jo Grimond]] in the 1960s by positioning itself as a [[radical centrist]], non-[[socialist]] alternative to the Conservative and Labour Party governments of the time.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.libdemmanifesto.com/1964/1964-liberal-manifesto.shtml|title=1964 Liberal Party Election Manifesto|publisher=Liberal / SDP / Libdem Manifestos|access-date=25 April 2010}}</ref>

=== Religious alignment ===
Since 1660, [[Nonconformist (Protestantism)|nonconformist]] Protestants have played a major role in English politics. Relatively few MPs were [[English Dissenters|Dissenters]]. However the Dissenters were a major voting bloc in many areas, such as the East Midlands.<ref>Henry Pelling, ''Social Geography of British Elections, 1885–1910'' (London, 1967), 89–90, 206.</ref> They were very well organised and highly motivated and largely won over the Whigs and Liberals to their cause. Down to the 1830s, Dissenters demanded removal of [[political and civil disabilities]] that applied to them (especially those in the [[Test and Corporation Acts]]). The Anglican establishment strongly resisted until 1828. Numerous reforms of voting rights, especially that of 1832, increased the political power of Dissenters. They demanded an end to compulsory church rates, in which local taxes went only to Anglican churches. They finally achieved the end of religious tests for university degrees in 1905. Gladstone brought the majority of Dissenters around to support for Home Rule for Ireland, putting the dissenting Protestants in league with the Irish Roman Catholics in an otherwise unlikely alliance. The Dissenters gave significant support to moralistic issues, such as temperance and sabbath enforcement. The [[nonconformist conscience]], as it was called, was repeatedly called upon by Gladstone for support for his moralistic foreign policy.<ref>D. W. Bebbington, ''The Nonconformist Conscience: Chapel and Politics, 1870–1914'' (George Allen & Unwin, 1982).</ref> In election after election, Protestant ministers rallied their congregations to the Liberal ticket. In Scotland, the Presbyterians played a similar role to the Nonconformist Methodists, Baptists and other groups in England and Wales.<ref>David L. Wykes, "Introduction: Parliament and Dissent from the Restoration to the Twentieth Century", ''Parliamentary History'' (2005) 24#1, pp. 1–26.</ref>

By the 1820s, the different Nonconformists, including [[Wesleyan Methodist Church (Great Britain)|Wesleyan Methodists]], Baptists, Congregationalists and Unitarians, had formed the [[Protestant dissenting deputies|Committee of Dissenting Deputies]] and agitated for repeal of the highly restrictive Test and [[Corporation Act 1661|Corporation]] Acts.<ref>{{cite book|author=Angus Hawkins|title=Victorian Political Culture: 'Habits of Heart and Mind'|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-PcJCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA84|year=2015|publisher=Oxford UP|page=84|isbn=9780191044144}}</ref> These Acts excluded Nonconformists from holding civil or military office or attending Oxford or Cambridge, compelling them to set up their own [[Dissenting Academies]] privately.<ref name="auto">Iain MacAllister et al., "Yellow fever? The political geography of Liberal voting in Great Britain", ''Political Geography'' (2002) 21#4, pp. 421–447.</ref> The [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] tended to be in favour of these Acts and so the Nonconformist cause was linked closely to the [[Whigs (British political party)|Whigs]], who advocated civil and religious liberty. After the Test and Corporation Acts were [[Sacramental Test Act 1828|repealed in 1828]], all the Nonconformists elected to Parliament were Liberals. Nonconformists were angered by the [[Education Act 1902]], which integrated Church of England denominational schools into the state system and provided for their support from taxes. [[John Clifford (minister)|John Clifford]] formed the National Passive Resistance Committee and by 1906 over 170 Nonconformists had gone to prison for refusing to pay school taxes.<ref>{{Citation|last=Mitchell|first=Sally|title=Victorian Britain An Encyclopedia|date=2011|publisher=Taylor & Francis Ltd|location=London|isbn=978-0415668514|page=66}}</ref> They included 60 [[Primitive Methodists]], 48 Baptists, 40 Congregationalists and 15 Wesleyan Methodists.

The political strength of Dissent faded sharply after 1920 with the secularisation of British society in the 20th century. The rise of the Labour Party reduced the Liberal Party strongholds into the nonconformist and remote "Celtic Fringe", where the party survived by an emphasis on localism and historic religious identity, thereby neutralising much of the class pressure on behalf of the Labour movement.<ref name="auto"/> Meanwhile, the Anglican Church was a bastion of strength for the Conservative Party. On the Irish issue, the Anglicans strongly supported unionism. Increasingly after 1850, the Roman Catholic element in England and Scotland was composed of recent emigrants from Ireland who largely voted for the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] until its collapse in 1918.

== Liberal leaders ==
=== Liberal Leaders in the House of Lords ===
* [[Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville]] (1859–1865)
* [[John Russell, 1st Earl Russell]] (1865–1868)
* [[Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd Earl Granville]] (1868–1891)
* [[John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley]] (1891–1894)
* [[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery]] (1894–1896)
* [[John Wodehouse, 1st Earl of Kimberley]] (1896–1902)
* [[John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer]] (1902–1905)
* [[George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon]] (1905–1908)
* [[Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe]] (1908–1923)
* [[Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon]] (1923–1924)
* [[William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp]] (1924–1931)
* [[Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading]] (1931–1936)
* [[Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe]] (1936–1944)
* [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel]] (1944–1955)
* [[Philip Rea, 2nd Baron Rea]] (1955–1967)
* [[Frank Byers]] (1967–1984)
* [[Nancy Seear, Baroness Seear]] (1984–1989)

=== Liberal Leaders in the House of Commons ===
* [[Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston]] (1859–1865)
* [[William Ewart Gladstone]] (1865–1875)
* [[Spencer Cavendish, 8th Duke of Devonshire]] (1875–1880)
* William Gladstone (1880–1894)
* [[Sir William Harcourt]] (1894–1898)
* [[Henry Campbell-Bannerman]] (1899–1908)
* [[H. H. Asquith]] (1908–1916)

=== Leaders of the Liberal Party ===
* [[H. H. Asquith]], 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, 1925 (1916–1926)
** [[Donald Maclean (British politician)|Donald Maclean]], Acting Leader (1919–1920)
* [[David Lloyd George]] (1926–1931)
* [[Sir Herbert Samuel]] (1931–1935)
* [[Sir Archibald Sinclair]] (1935–1945)
* [[Clement Davies]] (1945–1956)
* [[Jo Grimond]] (1956–1967)
* [[Jeremy Thorpe]] (1967–1976)
* [[Jo Grimond]], Interim Leader (1976)
* [[David Steel]] (1976–1988)

=== Deputy Leaders of the Liberal Party in the House of Commons ===
* [[Herbert Samuel]] (1929–1931)
* [[Archibald Sinclair]] (1931–1935)
* Post vacant (1935–1940)
* [[Sir Percy Harris, 1st Baronet|Percy Harris]] (1940–1945)
* Post vacant (1945–1949)
* [[Megan Lloyd George]] (1949–1951)
* Post vacant (1951–1962)
* [[Donald Wade]] (1962–1964)
* Post vacant (1964–1976)
* [[John Pardoe]] (1976–1979)
* Post vacant (1979–1985)
* [[Alan Beith]] (1985–1988)

=== Deputy Leaders of the Liberal Party in the House of Lords ===
* [[Eric Drummond, 7th Earl of Perth]] (1946–1951)
* [[Walter Layton, 1st Baron Layton]] (1952–1955)
* Post vacant (1955–1965)
* [[Gladwyn Jebb]], 1st Baron Gladwyn (1965–1988)

=== Liberal Party front bench team members ===
* [[Liberal Party Frontbench Team, 1945–1956|1945–1956]]
* [[Liberal Party Frontbench Team, 1956–1967|1956–1967]]
* [[Liberal Party Frontbench Team, 1967–1976|1967–1976]]

== Election results ==
{|class="sortable wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|-
|+[[Parliament of the United Kingdom]]
|-
!rowspan=2|Election
!rowspan=2|Leader
!colspan=2|Votes
!colspan=2|Seats
!rowspan=2|Position
!rowspan=2|Government
|-
!No.
!%
!No.
!±
|-
![[1865 United Kingdom general election|1865]]
|data-sort-value="pal"|[[Henry John Temple]]
|508,821
|59.5
|{{composition bar|369|658|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 13
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal}}
|-
![[1868 United Kingdom general election|1868]]<ref group="fn">The first election held under the [[Reform Act 1867]].</ref>
| rowspan="2"|[[William Ewart Gladstone]]
|1,428,776
|61.5
|{{composition bar|387|658|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 18
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal}}
|-
![[1874 United Kingdom general election|1874]]
|1,281,159
|52.0
|{{composition bar|242|652|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 145
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|[[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]]}}
|-
![[1880 United Kingdom general election|1880]]
|data-sort-value="hart"|[[Spencer Cavendish]]
|1,836,423
|54.2
|{{composition bar|352|652|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 110
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal}}
|-
![[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885]]<ref group="fn">The first election held under the [[Representation of the People Act 1884]] and the [[Redistribution of Seats Act 1885]].</ref>
| rowspan="3"|[[William Ewart Gladstone]]
|2,199,198
|47.4
|{{composition bar|319|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 33
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal minority}}
|-
![[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886]]
|1,353,581
|45.5
|{{composition bar|192|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 127
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Conservative–[[Liberal Unionist]]}}
|-
![[1892 United Kingdom general election|1892]]
|2,088,019
|45.4
|{{composition bar|272|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 80
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal minority}}
|-
![[1895 United Kingdom general election|1895]]
|data-sort-value="rose"|[[Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery|Archibald Primrose]]
|1,765,266
|45.7
|{{composition bar|177|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 95
|{{decrease}} 2nd
|{{no2|Conservative–Liberal Unionist}}
|-
![[1900 United Kingdom general election|1900]]
| rowspan="2"|[[Henry Campbell-Bannerman]]
|1,572,323
|44.7
|{{composition bar|183|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 6
|{{steady}} 2nd
|{{no2|Conservative–Liberal Unionist}}
|-
![[1906 United Kingdom general election|1906]]
|2,565,644
|48.9
|{{composition bar|397|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 214
|{{increase}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal}}
|-
!data-sort-value="1910.1"|[[January 1910 United Kingdom general election|January 1910]]
| rowspan="6"|[[H. H. Asquith]]
|2,712,511
|43.5
|{{composition bar|274|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 123
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal minority}}
|-
!data-sort-value="1910.2"|[[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]]
|2,157,256
|43.2
|{{composition bar|272|670|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 2
|{{steady}} 1st
|{{yes2|Liberal minority}}
|-
![[1918 United Kingdom general election|1918]]<ref group="fn">The first election held under the [[Representation of the People Act 1918]] in which all men over 21 and most women over the age of 30 could vote and therefore a much larger electorate.</ref>
|1,355,398
|13.0
|{{composition bar|36|707|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 236
|{{decrease}} 5th
|{{no2|[[Coalition Liberal]]–Conservative}}
|-
![[1922 United Kingdom general election|1922]]
|2,601,486
|18.9
|{{composition bar|62|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 26
|{{increase}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|-
![[1923 United Kingdom general election|1923]]
|4,129,922
|29.7
|{{composition bar|158|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 96
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|[[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] minority}}
|-
![[1924 United Kingdom general election|1924]]
|2,818,717
|17.8
|{{composition bar|40|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 118
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|-
![[1929 United Kingdom general election|1929]]<ref group="fn">The first election under [[universal suffrage]] in which all women aged over 21 could vote.</ref>
|data-sort-value="llo"|[[David Lloyd George]]
|5,104,638
|23.6
|{{composition bar|59|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 19
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour minority}}
|-
![[1931 United Kingdom general election|1931]]
| rowspan="2"|[[Herbert Samuel]]<ref group="fn">Liberal Party split into three prior to the 1931 election. Results do not include [[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|Liberal Nationals]] (later known as National Liberals) led by [[John Simon, 1st Viscount Simon|John Simon]] or the [[Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)|Independent Liberals]] led by [[Lloyd George]]. The Independent Liberals rejoined the Liberals after 1935. The National Liberals became allied with and eventually joined the Conservatives.</ref>
|1,346,571
|6.5
|{{composition bar|33|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 26
|{{decrease}} 4th
|{{yes2|Conservative–Liberal–[[National Labour Organisation|National Labour]]}}
|-
![[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935]]
|1,414,010
|6.7
|{{composition bar|21|615|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 12
|{{steady}} 4th
|{{no2|Conservative–[[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|Liberal National]]–National Labour}}
|-
![[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945]]
|data-sort-value="sinc"|[[Archibald Sinclair]]
|2,177,938
|9.0
|{{composition bar|12|640|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 9
|{{increase}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour}}
|-
![[1950 United Kingdom general election|1950]]
| rowspan="3"|[[Clement Davies]]
|2,621,487
|9.1
|{{composition bar|9|625|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 3
|{{decrease}} 6th
|{{no2|Labour}}
|-
![[1951 United Kingdom general election|1951]]
|730,546
|2.5
|{{composition bar|6|625|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 3
|{{increase}} 4th
|{{no2|Conservative–[[National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)|National Liberal]]}}
|-
![[1955 United Kingdom general election|1955]]
|722,402
|2.7
|{{composition bar|6|630|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{steady}} 0
|{{increase}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative–National Liberal}}
|-
![[1959 United Kingdom general election|1959]]
|rowspan="3"|[[Jo Grimond]]
|1,640,760
|5.9
|{{composition bar|6|630|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{steady}} 0
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative–National Liberal}}
|-
![[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964]]
|3,099,283
|11.2
|{{composition bar|9|630|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 3
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour}}
|-
![[1966 United Kingdom general election|1966]]
|2,327,533
|8.5
|{{composition bar|12|630|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 3
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour}}
|-
![[1970 United Kingdom general election|1970]]<ref group="fn">Franchise extended to all 18- to 20-year-olds under the [[Representation of the People Act 1969]].</ref>
|rowspan="3"|[[Jeremy Thorpe]]
|2,117,035
|7.5
|{{composition bar|6|630|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 6
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|-
!data-sort-value="1974.1"|[[February 1974 United Kingdom general election|February 1974]]
|6,059,519
|19.3
|{{composition bar|14|635|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 8
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour minority}}
|-
!data-sort-value="1974.2"|[[October 1974 United Kingdom general election|October 1974]]
|5,346,704
|18.3
|{{composition bar|13|635|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 1
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Labour}}
|-
![[1979 United Kingdom general election|1979]]
|rowspan="3"|[[David Steel]]
|4,313,804
|13.8
|{{composition bar|11|635|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{decrease}} 2
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|-
![[1983 United Kingdom general election|1983]]
|4,273,146
|25.4 ([[SDP–Liberal Alliance|Alliance]])<ref group="fn">Popular vote is for SDP-Liberal Alliance, seat total is Liberal component.</ref>
|{{composition bar|17|650|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{increase}} 6
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|-
![[1987 United Kingdom general election|1987]]
|4,170,849
|22.6 ([[SDP–Liberal Alliance|Alliance]])<ref group="fn">Popular vote is for SDP-Liberal Alliance, seat total is Liberal component.</ref>
|{{composition bar|17|650|hex={{party color|Liberal Party (UK)}}}}
|{{steady}} 0
|{{steady}} 3rd
|{{no2|Conservative}}
|}
; Notes
{{Reflist|group="fn"}}

== See also ==
[[File:Leeds and County Liberal Club blue plaque.jpg|thumb|Leeds and County Liberal Club blue plaque]]
* [[:Category:Liberal Party (UK) MPs]]
* [[List of Liberal Party (UK) MPs]]
* [[Liberalism in the United Kingdom]]
* [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]
* [[Leader of the Liberal Party (UK)]]
* [[List of United Kingdom Whig and allied party leaders, 1801–1859]]
* [[Liberal Chief Whip]]
* [[President of the Liberal Party]]
* [[List of Liberal Party and Liberal Democrats (UK) general election manifestos]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading ==
{{Further|William Ewart Gladstone#Further reading|David Lloyd George#Bibliography}}
{{refbegin|30em}}
* [[Adelman, Paul]]. ''The decline of the Liberal Party 1910–1931'' (2nd ed. Routledge, 2014).
* Bentley, Michael ''The Climax of Liberal Politics: British Liberalism in Theory and Practice, 1868–1918'' (1987).
* {{citation | title = Dictionary of Liberal Thought | publisher= Politico's | editor-first1 = Duncan | editor-last1 = Brack | editor-first2 = Ed | editor-last2 = Randall |place=London | date= 2007 | isbn = 978-1842751671 }}
* Brack, Duncan; Ingham, Robert; Little, Tony, eds. ''British Liberal Leaders'' (2015).  [https://books.google.com/books?id=PjeECgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:British+intitle:Liberal+intitle:Leaders&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj89OD1p6aQAxUim2oFHV_dAI0Q6AF6BAgKEAM online]
* [[John Campbell (biographer)|Campbell, John]] ''Lloyd George, The Goat in the Wilderness, 1922–31'' (1977).
* Clarke, P. F. "The Electoral Position of the Liberal and Labour Parties, 1910–1914." ''English Historical Review'' 90.357 (1975): 828–836. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/567297 in JSTOR].
* Cook, Chris. ''A Short History of the Liberal Party, 1900–2001'' (6th edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2002. {{ISBN|0-333-91838-X}}.
* Cregier, Don M. "The Murder of the British Liberal Party," ''The History Teacher'' 3#4 (1970), pp.&nbsp;27–36 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3054322 online edition]
* Cross, Colin. ''The Liberals in Power, 1905–1914'' (1963).
* David, Edward. "The Liberal Party Divided 1916–1918." ''Historical Journal'' 13#3 (1970, pp.&nbsp;509–32, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2637886 online]
* Dangerfield, George. ''The Strange Death of Liberal England'' (1935), a famous classic [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.175390 online ]. 
* Dutton, David. ''A History of the Liberal Party Since 1900'' (2nd ed. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013). [https://books.google.com/books?id=5CBHEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22Liberal+party%22+UK+intellectuals&pg=PP1 online]
* Fairlie, Henry.  "Oratory in Political Life," ''History Today'' (Jan 1960) 10#1 pp 3–13. A survey of political oratory in Britain from 1730 to 1960.
* Fahey, David M. "Temperance and the Liberal Party – Lord Peel's Report, 1899." ''Journal of British Studies'' 20#3 (1971), pp.&nbsp;132–59, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/175352 online].
* Gilbert, Bentley Brinkerhoff. ''David Lloyd George: A Political Life: The Architect of Change 1863–1912'' (1987)'  ''David Lloyd George: A Political Life: Organizer of Victory, 1912–1916'' (1992).
* Goodlad, Graham D. "The Liberal Party and Gladstone's Land Purchase Bill of 1886." ''Historical Journal'' 32#3 (1989), pp.&nbsp;627–41, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639536 online].
* Hamer, D. A. ''Liberal Politics in the Age of Gladstone and Rosebery'' (1972) [https://archive.org/details/liberalpoliticsi0000daha/page/n5/mode/2up online]
* Hammond, J. L. and M. R. D. Foot. ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.125582 Gladstone and Liberalism]'' (1952)
* Hazlehurst, Cameron. "Asquith as Prime Minister, 1908–1916," ''The English Historical Review'' 85#336 (1970), pp.&nbsp;502–531 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/563193 in JSTOR].
* Heyck, Thomas William. "Home Rule, Radicalism, and the Liberal Party, 1886–1895." ''Journal of British Studies'' 13#2 (1974), pp.&nbsp;66–91, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/175088 online].
* Hughes, K. M. "A Political Party and Education: Reflections on the Liberal Party's Educational Policy, 1867–1902." ''British Journal of Educational Studies'' 8#2, (1960), pp.&nbsp;112–26, [https://doi.org/10.2307/3118796 online].
* Jenkins, Roy. "From Gladstone to Asquith: The Late Victorian Pattern of Liberal Leadership," ''History Today'' (July 1964) 14#7 pp 445–452. 
* Jenkins, Roy. ''Asquith: portrait of a man and an era'' (1964).
* Jenkins, T. A. "Gladstone, the Whigs and the Leadership of the Liberal Party, 1879–1880." ''Historical Journal'' 27#2 (1984), pp.&nbsp;337–60, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639179 online].
*Jenkins, Terry. ''The Liberal Ascendancy, 1830–1886'' (Bloomsbury, 1994).
* [[Thomas Jones (civil servant)|Jones, Thomas]]. ''Lloyd George'' (1951), short biography
* Kellas, James G. "The Liberal Party in Scotland 1876–1895." ''Scottish Historical Review'' 44#137, (1965), pp.&nbsp;1–16, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/25528584 online]
* [[Laybourn, Keith]]. "The rise of Labour and the decline of Liberalism: the state of the debate." ''History'' 80.259 (1995): 207–226, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/24422523 online]
* Lubenow, W. C. "Irish Home Rule and the Social Basis of the Great Separation in the Liberal Party in 1886." ''Historical Journal'' 28#1 (1985), pp.&nbsp;125–42, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639378 online].
* Lynch, Patricia. ''The Liberal Party in Rural England, 1885–1910: Radicalism and Community'' (2003).
* MacAllister, Iain, et al., "Yellow fever? The political geography of Liberal voting in Great Britain," ''Political Geography'' (2002) 21#4 pp.&nbsp;421–447.
* McEwen, John M. "The Liberal Party and the Irish Question during the First World War." ''Journal of British Studies,'' 12#1, (1972), pp.&nbsp;109–31, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/175330 online].
* McGill, Barry. "Francis Schnadhorst and Liberal Party Organization." ''Journal of Modern History''  34#1 (1962), pp.&nbsp;19–39, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/1874816 online].
* Machin, G. I. T. "Gladstone and Nonconformity in the 1860s: The Formation of an Alliance." ''Historical Journal'' 17, no. 2 (1974): 347–64. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2638302 online].
* McCready, H. W. "Home Rule and the Liberal Party, 1899–1906." ''Irish Historical Studies'' 13#52, (1963), pp.&nbsp;316–48, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/30005014 online].
* {{citation | last= Morgan | first= Kenneth O. | author-link = Kenneth O. Morgan| title=Lloyd George | series= British Prime Ministers | publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson | location = London | date=1974 | isbn = 0297767054}}
* [[Mowat, Charles Loch]]. ''Britain between the Wars, 1918–1940'' (1955) 694 pp. scholarly survey [https://archive.org/details/britainbetweenwa00mowa online]
* Packer, Ian. ''Liberal government and politics, 1905–15'' (Springer, 2006).
* Parry, Jonathan. ''The Rise and Fall of Liberal Government in Victorian Britain'' (Yale, 1993) {{ISBN|0-300-06718-6}}.
* Poe, William A. "Conservative Nonconformists: Religious Leaders and the Liberal Party in Yorkshire/Lancashire." ''Nineteenth Century Studies'', vol. 2, (1988), pp.&nbsp;63–72, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/45196640 online].
* Pugh, Martin D. "Asquith, Bonar Law and the First Coalition." ''Historical Journal'' 17.4 (1974): 813–836.
* Pugh, Martin. "The Liberal Party and the Popular Front." ''English Historical Review'' 121#494, (2006), pp.&nbsp;1327–50, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/4493712 online].
* Roberts, Matthew. "The Decline of Liberalism and the Rise of Labour" in Roberts, ''Political Movements in Urban England, 1832–1914'' (2009) pp 128–144.
* Rossi, John P. "The Transformation of the British Liberal Party: A Study of the Tactics of the Liberal Opposition, 1874–1880." ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'' 68#8, (1978), pp.&nbsp;1–133, [https://doi.org/10.2307/1006334 online].
* Rossi, John P. "English Catholics, the Liberal Party, and the General Election of 1880." ''Catholic Historical Review,'' 63#3, (1977), pp.&nbsp;411–27, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/25020158 online].
* Russell, A.K. ''Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906'' (David & Charles, 1973).
* Searle, G. R. "The Edwardian Liberal Party and Business." ''English Historical Review'' 98#386, (1983), pp.&nbsp;28–60, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/570163 online].
* Searle, G. R. ''A New England? Peace and war, 1886–1918'' (Oxford UP, 2004), wide-ranging scholarly survey

* Sykes, Alan, ''The Rise and Fall of British Liberalism, 1776–1988'' (1997) [https://books.google.com/books?id=eJSbBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=intitle:The+intitle:Rise+intitle:and+intitle:Fall+intitle:of+intitle:British+intitle:Liberalism+intitle:1776+intitle:1988&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwik4pmKp6aQAxVwmWoFHYyEB9kQ6AF6BAgHEAM  online]

* Thorpe, Andrew. "Labour Leaders and the Liberals, 1906–1924", ''Cercles'' 21 (2011), pp.&nbsp;39–54. [http://www.cercles.com/n21/thorpe.pdf online].
* Tregidga, Garry. "Turning of the Tide? A Case Study of the Liberal Party in Provincial Britain in the Late 1930s." ''History'' 92#3 (2007), pp.&nbsp;347–66, [http://www.jstor.org/stable/24428247 online].
* Vincent, John. ''The Formation of the Liberal Party, 1857–1868'' (Constable, 1966) [https://archive.org/details/formationofbriti0000vinc online]

* Weiler, Peter. ''The New Liberalism: Liberal Social Theory in Great Britain, 1889–1914'' (Routledge, 2016).
* Wilson, Trevor. ''The Downfall of the Liberal Party: 1914–1935'' (1966).
{{refend}}

===Historiography===
* Häusermann, Silja, Georg Picot, and Dominik Geering. "Review article: Rethinking party politics and the welfare state–recent advances in the literature". ''British Journal of Political Science'' 43#1 (2013): 221–240.[https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0007123412000336 online].

* St. John, Ian. ''The Historiography of Gladstone and Disraeli'' (Anthem Press, 2016) 402 pp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ybo1DgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 excerpt].
* Thompson, J. A. "The Historians and the Decline of the Liberal Party." ''Albion'' 22#1, (1990), pp.&nbsp;65–83, [https://doi.org/10.2307/4050257 online].

=== Primary sources ===
* Craig, Frederick Walter Scott, ed. (1975). ''British General Election Manifestos, 1900–74''. Springer.

* [https://archive.org/details/liberalmagazine01britgoog/page/n8 ''Liberal Magazine 1901''] in-depth coverage of 1900.
* [https://archive.org/details/liberalmagazine00britgoog/page/n6  ''Liberal Magazine 1900''] in-depth coverage of 1899.
* ''The Liberal year book. 1887'' (1887) [https://archive.org/details/liberalyearbook10000unse online]
* ''The Liberal year book: 1906'' (1906); [https://archive.org/details/liberalyearbook01britgoog/page/n5/mode/1up online]
* ''The Liberal year book: 1907'' (1907); [https://archive.org/details/liberalyearbook00assogoog online]
* ''The Liberal Year Book: 1908'' (1908); [https://archive.org/details/liberalyearbook01unkngoog online], Biographies and voting returns since 1880s.

== External links ==
{{Commons category|Liberal Party (UK)}}
* [http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/ Liberal Democrat History Group].
* [http://archives.lse.ac.uk/TreeBrowse.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&field=RefNo&key=LIBERAL%20PARTY Catalogue] of the Liberal Party papers (mostly dating from after 1945) at [https://web.archive.org/web/20070618035533/http://www.lse.ac.uk/library/archive/Default.htm LSE Archives].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=74LSqxcUgYsC The Liberal Magazine Volume 2 1895].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=lUFJAQAAMAAJ Liberal Magazine A Periodical for the Use of Liberal Speakers, Writers and Canvassers Volume 1 1893].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=QjoIAAAAQAAJ&dq=liberal+campaign+factory+act+shaftesbury&pg=PA1 Facts for Liberal Politicians By John Noble 1879].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=5Kk5AQAAIAAJ&q=national+liberal+federation Proceedings in Connection with the Annual Meeting of the National Liberal Federation with the Annual Report By National Liberal Federation, 1881].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=oSLsl4p8h1AC&dq=liberal+campaign+factory+act+shaftesbury&pg=PA30 Election Address and Speeches By Samuel Smith, 1882].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=JAQLAAAAYAAJ Annual Report Presented at a Meeting of the Council By National Liberal Federation, 1887].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=tgQLAAAAYAAJ Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Council By National Liberal Federation, 1895].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=8O9fAAAAcAAJ&q=liberal+party+municipal+reform+housing Five Years of Liberal Policy and Conservative Opposition By George Charles Brodrick, 1874].
* [https://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/HKW/6/3 Leaflets published by the Liberal Publication Department for the General Election of 1906, 1906].
* [https://archive.org/details/liberalyearbook01unkngoog The Liberal year book for 1908].
* [https://archive.org/details/governmentsrecor00libeuoft/page/n441/mode/2up The Government's record, 1906–1913 : seven years of Liberal legislation and administration By Liberal Publication Dept. (Great Britain)].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=V3FIAAAAYAAJ&dq=manchester+liberals+municipal+programme+working+class&pg=PA368 The Yale Review Volume 4 1895].
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=Kh4vEAAAQBAJ&dq=liberal+municipal+programmes+midlands+working+class&pg=PT17 The Age of Lloyd George The Liberal Party and British Politics, 1890–1929 By Kenneth O. Morgan, 2021].

{{Liberal Party (UK)}}
{{UK Liberal Democrats}}
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[[Category:Liberal Party (UK)| ]]
[[Category:1859 establishments in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1988 disestablishments in the United Kingdom]]
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[[Category:Defunct liberal political parties|United Kingdom 1860s]]
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[[Category:Social liberal parties]]