Long was determined on a career in politics, campaigning at
Marlborough in a traditional Liberal seat in 1879. After
Sir George Jenkinson agreed to resign in
North Wiltshire, he was adopted by 'half a dozen country gentlemen'. At the
1880 general election, Long was elected to parliament as a
Conservative for the seat, which he held until 1885. A supporter of
Lord Beaconsfield, the British Empire, Church of England and state, he was against extending education, but favoured bible teachings in schools. He won the two-member North Wiltshire seat by more than 2000 votes. At the time Beaconsfield died on 19 April 1881, he was making a record of his days in the Commons: "I rose somewhere about 8.30 and as a new member was duly called". The Liberal government was in trouble over Egypt and the
Bradlaugh incident; and the Conservatives were internally divided. He hunted for the
Beaufort Hounds. I selected as my time, midnight until, if necessary, eight in the morning. I used to leave London at 5.30 in the morning, providing the House was up, take the train down to
Chippenham, have my hunt, and get back to London by train leaving Chippenham about 7.30 … I was at the House at midnight and I would stay there till it rose. He made his first speech on 26 July 1880 during the third reading of the Compensation for Disturbances (Ireland) bill. constituency]. Caricature by
Spy published in
Vanity Fair in 1886. With North Wiltshire abolished, Long won his
Devizes seat with a reduced majority of 95 votes at the
November 1885 general election. There was considerable anger at the Conservatives 'Fair Trade policy' for workers. He believed English people had little understanding of Ireland or the minority in Ireland that
Home Rule would not protect, and that
Gladstone's Home Rule policy would lead to the dismemberment of the empire. The home rule policy was defeated, Long was returned with an increased majority of 1726 votes in July 1886. Aged thirty-two, Long was asked to become a junior minister to
Charles Ritchie at the Local Government Board, in
Salisbury's government. They had noticed his unswerving support from the backbenches. He was approachable and had a no-nonsense manner, an excellent memory: logical and crisp. He was both mature and responsible for a young MP. The very strong connections he had with the agricultural community assisted local government in his area. He entered government for the first time in 1886 in Lord Salisbury's second administration as
Parliamentary Secretary to the Local Government Board, serving under Charles Ritchie, and became one of the architects of the
Local Government Act 1888, which established elected county councils. Long dealt with Poor Law reform in the county areas, slum reforms, reform of the
London County Council, and better housing for the working-classes. He was deputed to make speeches backing the government position on the LCC bill, although he was not responsible for its draft or passage. Ritchie was to deal with the towns in Local Government Act 1888, but was ill for the period, and Long had "a sound grasp its details and essentials." On 6 Feb 1887, he made an important speech in the "Plan of Campaign" from which unionism there seemed to encourage
landlordism. However behind the law for tenant compensation, Long knew lay a deeper demand for independence. He continued to be worried by the Liberals' policy of Home Rule, supporting the Irish Unionists who opposed it. He could not square the retention of Irish MPs at Westminster under the scheme for the second home rule bill. Irish MPs could control English, Scottish, and Welsh affairs, so he argued. The issue was central to the
general election of 1892. Long had returned from Canada on a tour speaking on the federal system there. He reiterated the claim that Ulster Unionists would never accept the bill but Liberals argued that the Conservatives would raise bread prices, and lower wages if returned, "the labourers are ignorant lot and swallowed it whole", he decried. Long was defeated by 138 votes, losing his seat. In July 1892,
Liverpool West Derby became vacant and Long defeated the Liberal candidate by 1357 votes at the
by-election of 1893. Knowing his grasp of parliamentary procedure,
Arthur Balfour hired him to be a strategist in opposition. The Liberals appointed Long to the
Royal Commission on Agriculture, meeting at
Trowbridge on 18 January 1893. Long continued in connections with Ireland throughout his career. He did not wish to sever legislative ties of Union with Ireland; but only to offer "an extension of the privileges of local government to the Irish people". Home Rule was thrown out by the Lords on 8 September 1893, by 419 votes to 41. In June 1895, the Liberals were resoundingly defeated in the Lords, and the following month Salisbury was returned for another ministry. After the Conservative defeat in 1892, Ritchie's retirement made Long the chief opposition spokesman on local government, and when the Tories returned to power in 1895, he entered the cabinet as
President of the Board of Agriculture. In this role he was notable for his efforts to prevent the spread of
rabies. The creation of the Board of Agriculture had brought a boost to Long's career in 1889 but opposition rose up strongly, when the
Dog Muzzlers act, prompted the Laymen's League in Liverpool to contest the Church Discipline bill. Long became increasingly unpopular in his constituency accused of being "irascible and scheming", and was advised to change seats. However, this did not prevent in 1895 admittance to the
Privy Council. The bourgeois Navy League in Liverpool could not wait to get rid of him but his powerful friends, like the "somnolent" Duke of Devonshire gave large donations to the Anti-Socialist Union – and this would be disastrous to the Union, for it would immediately alienate every snob and mediocrity ..." Yet Long was thick-skinned and seemed impervious to the insults, for he remained remarkably successful at the polls. At the
'Khaki election' of November 1900, Long won
Bristol South. With the ministerial shuffle in 1900, he became
President of the Local Government Board. Never an insider, Long worked closely with constituents on local issues showing "sensitivity to the wider needs of society". His capacity for hard work revealed that he was also stubborn, short-tempered, with a choleric temperament; a stickler for the letter of the law. He was frequently plagued by ill-health:
neuralgia,
arthritis, susceptible to colds and
flu; a waspish character, he was not charismatic, nor was he analytic or probing, like his mentor
Arthur Balfour. In 1903, Long took a leading role as a spokesman for the protectionist wing of the party, advocating tariff reform and imperial preference alongside
Joseph Chamberlain and his son
Austen Chamberlain, which brought him into conflict with Charles Ritchie,
Michael Hicks-Beach and others on the free-trade wing. Long was a moderate within the protectionist ranks and became a go-between for the protectionists and free-traders, increasing his prominence and popularity within the party. Perhaps his most significant achievement on the board was the unification of the London water-supply boards into the
Metropolitan Water Board.
Chief Secretary for Ireland Long was offered the position of
First Lord of the Admiralty in
Lord Selborne's place, as the latter was appointed to the
Governor-Generalship of South Africa but he refused the promotion, advising the appointment of
Lord Cawdor. Long really wanted to remain at Local Government, but when
George Wyndham resigned as
Chief Secretary for Ireland, Balfour was faced with a crisis. Wyndham resigned on 5 March 1905, over what became known as the "Wyndham-MacDonnell Imbroglio".
Sir Antony MacDonnell was a successful Indian civil servant appointed by Wyndham as
Permanent Under-Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland on the strict understanding that the permanent post made MacDonnell's role a non-political position. MacDonnell was a Catholic from
County Mayo, whose appointment left unionists wondering if they had been betrayed by London. Nevertheless, having competently implemented the
Land Purchase (Ireland) Act 1903, MacDonnell came to be seen as a force for moderation. Wyndham was occupied in London with cabinet duties and so appreciated the implied need for permanent governance. Balfour had already considered Long for the post in January 1905, and to that end consulted both
Edward Carson and John Atkinson, under pressure from
Horace Plunkett and
Gerald Balfour to continue the policy of moderate reform. Due to his Irish connections (both his wife and his mother were Irish), Balfour hoped that Long might be more acceptable to Irish Unionists than his predecessor. Long was reluctant to accept the offer, being frustrated and angered by
Lord Dunraven's proposals and MacDonnell's initiatives, which he regarded as anti-Unionist. However, Long was determined to bring Unionism back from the brink of extinction in Ireland. Arriving in Dublin on 15 March, at dinner there he took the pragmatic view to work with MacDonnell. Throughout March and April he saw no grounds for MacDonnell's dismissal. Long's motto of "patience and firmness" was designed to placate Irish Unionists at public meetings, speeches and tours of Ireland, made to reassure local community officials. While labouring closely with Unionists to discuss agrarian and non-agrarian crime, and discipline in the
RIC, he continued to appease Unionist opinion. He appointed Unionist
William Moore as Solicitor-General for Ireland, and saw to the appointment of
John Atkinson, as a Lord of Appeal, while
Edward Saunderson, an Ulsterite member of the
Orange Order, became a confidant and close friend. Patronage was usually dispensed by the Lord Lieutenant: this sparked a row with
Lord Dudley as
Lord Lieutenant, and a constitutional argument prompted an appeal to the Prime Minister. On 20 April 1905, he made an important speech at Belfast emphasizing that he was a stickler for order and the rule of law. However, in the south and west, obdurate landlords refused land sales to tenantry, leading to boycotts and cattle-driving. Substantial damage was done to unionist farms and farmers. MacDonnell continually urged compromise, but Long ignored him. The dispute with Lords Dudley and Dunraven dragged on into August 1905, with their attitude of intransigence towards Long's attempts at Unionist reform and demanding obedience to the law. On 25 May 1905 the issues were discussed in the Commons. He wished to strengthen Unionism, but both Dudley and Long appealed to Balfour for adjudication. Balfour opined that the Chief Secretary was both in the Commons and in the cabinet, so Dudley had to be content that the power of the Lords was waning. During the last quarter of 1905, Long advised the postponement of dissolution, as it would hit Unionists hard in "the Country" and would hand numerous electorates to radicals. He warned of the loss of seats of
Bristol West and
South. In December 1905, true to his word, Long himself was defeated by 2,692 votes. Long continued to distrust 'Birmingham & Co' as he called
Chamberlain's struggle for a policy of tariff recognition, which was already driving the party away from the Free Trade north. Nonetheless, he continued to co-operate internationally with conservative parties in Germany, such as the Deutsche Reichspartei, right up until the
Second Moroccan Crisis in 1911.
Unionist in opposition Nonetheless, Long's parliamentary career was far from finished. He was also nominated as Unionist candidate for
South Dublin in 1906, winning by 1,343 votes. Long became one of the leading opposition voices against the Liberal plans for Home Rule in Ireland. At this stage the Irish Unionist Party's leadership was still in the hands of his friend Edward Saunderson, who was far from energetic, unhelpfully described as "devoid of business capacity". The dispute with MacDonnell was carried on in the pages of
The Times – Long trying to galvanise Unionist opinion in both England and Ireland. Balfour,
Jack Sandars (Balfour's private secretary), and Wyndham all thought he had been duped by Unionism "where his vanity and hopes are concerned", characterising the Chief Secretary as easily manipulated. In October 1906, Saunderson died, and Long was chosen as the new Chairman of
Irish Unionist Alliance (IUA) – aimed at closer co-operation between northern and southern parties. Three months later, he was also elected as Chairman of the
Ulster Unionist Council (UUC). In 1907, he formed the Union Defence League (UDL) to support Irish unionism in Great Britain. The UDL in London linked with the UUC in Belfast and the IUA in Dublin. It had support from Conservative backbenchers but not the leadership. It was active in 1907–1908 and again after 1911 when the
Third Home Rule Bill was imminent; with the
Primrose League it created the 1914
British Covenant mirroring the 1912
Ulster Covenant. Although Long never openly supported the most militant Unionists, who were prepared to fight the Southern nationalists (and perhaps the British Army) to prevent home rule for Ireland, contemporary accounts indicate that he probably had prior knowledge of the
Larne gunrunning. In the Commons Walter Long was an active opponent of Liberal social legislation. He founded a Budget Protest League to advance the cause of moderate tax changes. In the Lords the defeat of the 'people's budget' led to the constitutional crisis of 1911. He clashed with
Edward Carson adopting a similarly equivocal position over the
Parliament Bill of 1911, opposing the Bill, but recommending acquiescence. He sat as MP for the
Strand between January 1910 and 1918 and
St George's between 1918 and 1921. ==Political career, 1911–1921==