A coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties had governed the United Kingdom since the 1895 general election.
Arthur Balfour had served as Prime Minister from 1902 until 5 December 1905, when he chose to resign over growing unpopularity. Instead of calling a general election, Balfour had hoped that under a Liberal government, splits would re-emerge; which would therefore help the Conservative Party achieve victory at the next general election. The incoming Liberal government chose to capitalise on the Conservative government's unpopularity and called an immediate general election one month later on 12 January 1906, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Conservatives.
Conservative unpopularity The
Unionist government had become deeply divided over the issue of
free trade, which soon became an electoral liability. This culminated in
Joseph Chamberlain's resignation from the government in May 1903 to campaign for tariff reform in order to protect British industry from foreign competition. This division was in contrast to the Liberal Party's belief in free trade, which it argued would help keep costs of living down. The
Boer War had also contributed to the unpopularity of the Conservative and Unionist government. The war had lasted over two and half years, much longer than had originally been expected, while details were revealed of the existence of
concentration camps where over 20,000 men, women and children were reported to have died because of poor sanitation. The war had also unearthed the poor social state of the country in the early 1900s. This was after more than 40% of military recruits for the Boer War were declared unfit for military service; in
Manchester, 8,000 of the 11,000 men who had been recruited had to be turned away for being in poor physical condition. This was after the 1902
Rowntree study of poverty in
York showed that almost one-third of the population lived below the '
poverty line', which helped to increase the calls for social reforms, something which had been neglected by the Conservative and Unionist government. The Conservative and Unionist Prime Minister,
Arthur Balfour, had been blamed over the issue of 'Chinese Slavery', i.e. the use of Chinese-indentured labour in South Africa (see
Chinese South Africans). This became controversial among the Conservative Party's middle-class supporters, who saw it as unethical. The working-class also objected to the practice, as White emigration to South Africa could have created jobs for the unemployed in Britain.
Nonconformists were angered when Conservatives pushed through the
Education Act 1902, which integrated voluntary schools into the state system and provided for their support from the local rate. The local school boards were abolished and replaced by
local education authorities based on county or county borough councils. Worst of all, the Anglican schools, which were on the edge of bankruptcy would thus receive funding from local rates that everyone had to pay. One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes. The school system played a major role in the Liberal victory in 1906, as Dissenter (nonconformist) Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. However, the Liberals were conscious of the call to fair treatment their victory had in the counties and neither repealed or modified the 1902 law. Another issue which lost the Conservatives nonconformist votes was the
Licensing Act 1904. Although the legislation aimed to reduce the number of
public houses, it proposed to compensate brewers for the cancellation of their licence, through a fund the brewers themselves would have to pay into == Results ==