On This Day

December 6, 1923

Polling day in the 1923 general election

The election had been brought about with the announcement by the new Conservative Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, of a move to protection. The news precipitated a rush to unify the two factions of the Liberal Party and an uneasy truce was agreed in which Lloyd George agreed to support Asquith as leader of a reunified party. The party, fighting on a familiar free trade platform, saw a recovery in its vote and 158 Liberal MPs elected – major cities such as Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham saw a swing back to Liberalism, while in places such as Aylesbury and Blackpool which stayed Tory in 1906 went Liberal. Ominously for the party, it failed to overtake the Labour Party and over half the seats had been won in straight fights with one of the other parties.