Liberalism can occasionally have the imported American meaning; however, the pejorative connotation is much weaker in the UK than in the US, and social liberals from both the left and right wing continue to use liberal and illiberal to describe themselves and their opponents, respectively.
Historically, the term referred to the broad liberal political alliance of the nineteenth century, formed by Whigs, Peelites, and radicals. This alliance, which developed into the Liberal Party, dominated politics for much of the Victorian era and during the years before the First World War.
British liberalism is now organised between two schools;
In addition, The Economist magazine, based in Britain and with an international audience, claims to be "liberal" and regrets the split between the two schools.[2][3]
William Ewart Gladstone (1809–1898) dominated liberalism and the Liberal Party in the late 19th century. He served for 12 years as prime minister, spread over four terms beginning in 1868 and ending in 1894. He also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer four times and between terms was usually the minority leader. The historian H. C. G. Matthew states that Gladstone's chief legacy lay in three areas: his financial policy; his support for Home Rule (devolution) that modified the view of the unitary state of Great Britain; and his idea of a progressive, reforming party broadly based and capable of accommodating and conciliating varying interests, along with his speeches at mass public meetings.[4]
Historian Walter L. Arnstein concludes "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 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.[5]
In 1909 the Liberal Chancellor David Lloyd George introduced his "People's Budget", the first budget which aimed to redistribute wealth. The Liberal statesman Lord Rosebery ridiculed it by asserting Gladstone would reject it, "Because in his eyes, and in my eyes, too, as his humble disciple, Liberalism and Liberty were cognate terms; they were twin-sisters."[7]
Lloyd George had written in 1913 that the Liberals were "carving the last few columns out of the Gladstonian quarry".[8]
Lloyd George said of Gladstone in 1915: "What a man he was! Head and shoulders above anyone else I have ever seen in the House of Commons. I did not like him much. He hated Nonconformists and Welsh Nonconformists in particular, and he had no real sympathy with the working-classes. But he was far and away the best Parliamentary speaker I have ever heard. He was not so good in exposition."[9]
Writing in 1944 the classical liberal economist Friedrich Hayek said of the change in political attitudes that had occurred since the Great War: "Perhaps nothing shows this change more clearly than that, while there is no lack of sympathetic treatment of Bismarck in contemporary English literature, the name of Gladstone is rarely mentioned by the younger generation without a sneer over his Victorian morality and naive utopianism".[10]
In the latter half of the 20th century Gladstone's economic policies came to be admired by Thatcherite Conservatives. Margaret Thatcher proclaimed in 1983: "We have a duty to make sure that every penny piece we raise in taxation is spent wisely and well. For it is our party which is dedicated to good housekeeping—indeed, I would not mind betting that if Mr Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party".[11] In 1996, she said: "The kind of Conservatism which he and I...favoured would be best described as 'liberal', in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone, not of the latter-day collectivists".[12] That sort of liberalism in the 21st century is termed neoliberalism.
A. J. P. Taylor wrote "William Ewart Gladstone was the greatest political figure of the nineteenth century. I do not mean by that that he was necessarily the greatest statesman, certainly not the most successful. What I mean is that he dominated the scene."[13]
Key politicians included future prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman, Winston Churchill,[17]H. H. Asquith and David Lloyd George, sceptics of non-interventionism on economy and free market, embraced the New Liberalism. During the Liberal Governments of 1905–1916, the welfare state was introduced to provide provision for lower incomes. In 1908 a pension system was created with old-age pensions for people older than age 70; an income tax was introduced and in 1911 the National Insurance Act was approved.[18][19] To fund extensive welfare reforms Lloyd George proposed taxes on land ownership and high incomes in the "People's Budget" (1909), which the Conservative-dominated House of Lords rejected. The resulting constitutional crisis was only resolved after two elections in 1910 and the passage of the Parliament Act 1911. His budget was enacted in 1910, and with the National Insurance Act 1911 and other measures helped to establish the modern welfare state. Lloyd George promoted the disestablishment of the Church in Wales, until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 suspended its implementation. All Liberals were outraged when Conservatives used their majority in the House of Lords to block reform legislation. 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.[20]
However, the Great War of 1914 reduced popular support for the Liberals and the Party split in two factions in 1918: Asquith's supporters and Lloyd George's coupons. While Asquith became Leader of the Opposition, Lloyd George forged a coalition with the Conservative leader Bonar Law, continuing to be Prime Minister with a mostly Conservative base. The Liberal internal conflict caused many reformer and radical voters to join in the Labour Party, while more conservative liberals merged to the Conservatives led by Stanley Baldwin. The 1924 general election signalled the end of the Liberal Party as government force. However, the New Liberalism continued to be the preferred ideology by the Liberal Party, until its dissolution in 1988 when formed the Liberal Democrats.
1940–1975: Post-war consensus
The post-war consensus began in the 1930s when Liberal intellectuals led by John Maynard Keynes and William Beveridge developed a series of plans that became especially attractive as the wartime government promised a much better post-war Britain and saw the need to engage every sector of society. The foundations of the post-war consensus was the Beveridge Report. This was a report by William Beveridge, a Liberal economist who in 1942 formulated the concept of a more comprehensive welfare state in Great Britain.[21] The report, in shortened terms, aimed to bring widespread reform to the United Kingdom and did so by identifying the "five giants on the road of reconstruction": "Want… Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness".[22] In the report were labelled a number of recommendations: the appointment of a minister to control all the insurance schemes; a standard weekly payment by people in work as a contribution to the insurance fund; old age pensions, maternity grants, funeral grants, pensions for widows and for people injured at work; a new national health service to be established.
In the period between 1945 and 1970 (consensus years) that unemployment averaged less than 3%. The post-war consensus included a belief in Keynesian economics,[21] a mixed economy with the nationalisation of major industries, the establishment of the National Health Service and the creation of the modern welfare state in Britain. The policies were instituted by all governments (both Labour and Conservative) in the post-war period. The consensus has been held to characterise British politics until the economic crises of the 1970s (see Secondary banking crisis of 1973–1975) which led to the end of the post-war economic boom and the rise of monetarist economics. The roots of his economics, however, stem from critique of the economics of the interwar period depression. Keynes' style of economics encouraged a more active role of the government in order to "manage overall demand so that there was a balance between demand and output".[23]
With the rise of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader in the 1975 leadership election ushered in a resurgence of the old 19th-century Gladstone laissez-faire Classical liberal principles. The UK in the 1970s had seen sustained high inflation rates, which were above 20% at the time of the leadership election, high unemployment, and over the winter of 1978–79 there was a series of strikes known as the "Winter of Discontent".[24] Thatcher led her party to victory at the 1979 general election with a manifesto which concentrated on the party's philosophy rather than presenting a "shopping list" of policies.[25] This philosophy became known as Thatcherism and it focused on rejecting the post-war consensus that tolerated or encouraged nationalisation, strong labour unions, heavy regulation, high taxes, and a generous welfare state.[26] Thatcherism was based on social and economic ideas from British and American intellectuals such as Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Thatcher believed that too much socially democratic-oriented government policy was leading to a long-term decline in the British economy. As a result, her government pursued a programme of Classical liberalism, adopting a free-market approach to public services based on the sale of publicly owned industries and utilities, as well as a reduction in trade union power. She held the belief that the existing trend of unions was bringing economic progress to a standstill by enforcing "wildcat" strikes, keeping wages artificially high and forcing unprofitable industries to stay open.
Thatcherism promoted low inflation, the small state, and free markets through tight control of the money supply, privatisation and constraints on the labour movement. It is a key part of the worldwide Classical liberal movement and as such is often compared with Reaganomics in the United States, Economic Rationalism in Australia and Rogernomics in New Zealand. Thatcherism is also often compared to classical liberalism. Milton Friedman said that "Margaret Thatcher is not in terms of belief a Tory. She is a nineteenth-century Liberal."[27] Thatcher herself stated in 1983: "I would not mind betting that if Mr Gladstone were alive today he would apply to join the Conservative Party".[28] In the 1996 Keith Joseph memorial lecture Thatcher argued that "The kind of Conservatism which he and I... favoured would be best described as 'liberal', in the old-fashioned sense. And I mean the liberalism of Mr Gladstone, not of the latter day collectivists".[29]
The Liberal Party lose the 1874 general election, winning 242 seats. A Conservative Government is formed.
1880
The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1880 general election, winning 352 seats. Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the second time.
1885
The Liberal Party gain the most seats (319 seats) in the 1880 general election but fail to win an overall majority with the Irish Nationalists holding the balance of power.
The Liberal Party win 272 seats in the 1892 general election and Gladstone becomes Prime Minister for the fourth time forming a minority government dependent on Irish Nationalist support. The Liberal Unionists win 45 seats.
The Liberal Party lose the 1895 general election, winning 177 seats. The Liberal Unionists win 71 seats and with the Conservatives form an Unionist Government.
1900 to 1944
Campbell-Bannerman
1900
The Liberal Party win 184 seats in the 1900 general election. The Liberal Unionists win 68 seats and with the Conservatives form an Unionist Government.
1906
The Liberal Party win an overall majority in the 1906 general election, winning 396 seats. Henry Campbell-Bannerman becomes Prime Minister. This would prove to be the greatest victory for the Liberals and also the last time the Liberal Party won a majority in their own right. The Liberal Unionists win 25 seats.
H. H. Asquith
1908
Henry Campbell-Bannerman resigns as prime minister and is succeeded by H. H. Asquith.
1910
The Liberal Party win 274 seats and the Liberal Unionists win 32 seats in January 1910 general election. Asquith forms a government with the support of the Irish Nationalists. Another election is held in December, with the Liberal Party winning 272 seats and the Liberal Unionists winning 36 seats. This would prove the last time the Liberal Party won the highest number of seats in the House of Commons.
1912
The Liberal Unionists merge with the Conservatives to form the present-day Conservative and Unionist Party (known as the Conservative Party).
1915
After several British set backs in the First World War, H. H. Asquith invites the Conservatives to form a war-time coalition government. This marked the end of the last all Liberal government.
David Lloyd George
1916
H. H. Asquith loses support of the Conservative Party and David Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister. The Liberal Party is now split into two factions: one camp supporting Lloyd George and the other following Asquith.
1918
At the end of the war, a general election was held. The Liberal Party remained split with Lloyd George's Coalition Liberals winning 127 seats and the Asquith led Liberals winning 36 seats. Lloyd George remains Prime Minister with Conservative support.
1922
Lloyd George is forced to resign after loss of support from the Conservatives. In the 1922 general election, the Lloyd George led National Liberals win 53 seats, whilst the Asquith led Liberals win 62 seats.
1923
The National Liberals and the Asquith Liberal factions are re-united as one in support of free trade and the Liberal Party win 158 seats in the 1923 general election. It was the last election in which the Liberals won more than 100 seats.
1924
The Liberal Party are nearly wiped out and win only 40 seats in the 1924 general election.
The Liberal Party agrees to join the National Government. After the National Government proposed to fight the 1931 election for a mandate of tariffs, the Liberal Party was split into three groups. A faction, led by John Simon, supported the protectionist government policy and formed the Liberal National Party. Another faction, led by Lloyd George, became the Independent Liberals. The third grouping, the 'official' Liberal Party, was led by Herbert Samuel. In the 1931 general election, the Liberal Nationals won 35 seats, the 'official' Liberals won 33 seats, the Independent Liberals won 4 seats.
1933
The 'official' Liberal Party leave the National Government.
1935
In the 1935 general election, the Liberal Nationals won 33 seats, the 'official' Liberals won 21 seats, the Independent Liberals won 4 seats. Lloyd George's Independent Liberals rejoined with the rest of the 'official' Liberal Party after the general election. The Liberal Nationals remain in the National Government.
1940
Both the Liberal Party and the Liberal National Party join the Churchill Wartime Government.
1945 to present day
1945
The Liberal Party win 12 seats, and the Liberal Nationals win 11 seats in the 1945 general election.
1947
The Liberal National Party is renamed National Liberal Party and formally merges with the Conservative Party at constituency level; however some MPs and candidates continue to use the National Liberal label (and variants thereof) for the next twenty years.
1950
The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1950 general election. Candidates under the National Liberals banner win 17 seats.
1951
The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
1955
The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1955 general election. National Liberals win 21 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
1959
The Liberal Party win 6 seats in the 1951 general election. National Liberals win 19 seats and with the Conservatives form a Conservative Government.
1964
The Liberal Party win 9 seats in the 1964 general election. National Liberals win 6 seats.
1966
The Liberal Party win 12 seats in the 1966 general election. National Liberals win 3 seats.
1968
The National Liberals merge completely with the Conservative Party.
An electoral and political alliance between the Liberal Party and SDP is formed. The Liberal Party win 17 seats and the SDP win 6 seats in the 1983 general election. The Conservatives win another landslide victory with 397 seats.
1987
The Conservatives win another victory with 376 seats and the Liberal–SDP alliance win 22 seats in the 1987 general election.
The Conservatives win another victory with 336 seats and new Liberal Democrats win 20 seats in the 1992 general election.
1997
The Conservatives win 165 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 46 seats in the 1997 general election.
2001
The Conservatives win 166 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 52 seats in the 2001 general election.
2002
A splinter group of the Conservative Party, the Pro-Euro Conservative Party merges into the Liberal Democrats.
2005
The Conservatives win 198 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 62 seats in the 2005 general election.
2010
The Conservatives win the 2010 general election with 306 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 57 seats, however with no overall control the two parties form a coalition government.
2015
The Conservatives win the 2015 general election with 330 seats and the coalition is ended; the Liberal Democrats are nearly wiped out and win only 8 seats.
2017
The Conservatives win another victory with 317 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 12 seats in the 2017 general election.
2019
The Conservatives win the 2019 general election with 365 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 11 seats.
2024
The Conservatives win 121 seats and the Liberal Democrats win 72 seats in the 2024 general election. This is the best result for the Liberal Party / Liberal Democrats in 100 years.
Timeline of Liberal parties in Northern Ireland
1956
The Ulster Liberal Association is formed, and is soon renamed as the Ulster Liberal Party.
The Ulster Liberal Party fields its last candidate in a Northern Ireland election and subsequently endorses Alliance candidates instead.
1988
A small branch of the Liberal Democrats is formed in Northern Ireland. Like the Ulster Liberal Party, it supports Alliance Party candidates in elections.
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Conservative Party, in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Beginning as an alliance of Whigs, free trade–supporting Peelites, and reformist Radicals in the 1850s, by the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William 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 general election. Under prime ministers Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1905–1908) and H. H. Asquith (1908–1916), the Liberal Party passed reforms that created a basic welfare state. Although Asquith was the party leader, its dominant figure was David Lloyd George.
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy which, by legislation and convention, operates as a unitary parliamentary democracy. A hereditary monarch, currently King Charles III, serves as head of state while the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, currently Sir Keir Starmer since 2024, serves as the elected head of government.
The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the House of Commons. The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979.
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats and the first of two consecutive landslide victories.
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and style of management while in office. Proponents of Thatcherism are referred to as Thatcherites. The term has been used to describe the principles of the British government under Thatcher from the 1979 general election to her resignation in 1990. In international terms, Thatcherites have been described as a part of the general socio-economic movement known as neoliberalism, with different countries besides the United Kingdom sharing similar policies around expansionary capitalism.
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British politician and statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916. He was the last Liberal Party prime minister to command a majority government, and the most recent Liberal to have served as Leader of the Opposition. He played a major role in the design and passage of major liberal legislation and a reduction of the power of the House of Lords. In August 1914, Asquith took Great Britain and the British Empire into the First World War. During 1915, his government was vigorously attacked for a shortage of munitions and the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign. He formed a coalition government with other parties but failed to satisfy critics, was forced to resign in December 1916 and never regained power.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party established a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule. The two parties formed the ten-year-long coalition Unionist Government 1895–1905 but kept separate political funds and their own party organisations until a complete merger between the Liberal Unionist and the Conservative parties was agreed to in May 1912.
The 1987 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive general election victory for the Conservative Party, who won a majority of 102 seats and second landslide under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in 1820 to lead a party into three successive electoral victories.
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was a centrist and social liberal political and electoral alliance in the United Kingdom.
The 1924 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 29 October 1924, as a result of the defeat of the Labour minority government, led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons on a motion of no confidence. It was the third general election to be held in less than two years. Parliament was dissolved on 9 October.
The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was won by the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Andrew Bonar Law, which gained an overall majority over the Labour Party, led by J. R. Clynes, and a divided Liberal Party.
The 1918 United Kingdom general election was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended the First World War, and was held on Saturday, 14 December 1918. The governing coalition, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, sent letters of endorsement to candidates who supported the coalition government. These were nicknamed "Coalition Coupons", and led to the election being known as the "coupon election". The result was a massive landslide in favour of the coalition, comprising primarily the Conservatives and Coalition Liberals, with massive losses for Liberals who were not endorsed. Nearly all the Liberal MPs without coupons were defeated, including party leader H. H. Asquith.
The Conservative Party is the oldest political party in the United Kingdom and arguably the world. The current party was first organised in the 1830s and the name "Conservative" was officially adopted, but the party is still often referred to as the Tory party. The Tories had been a coalition that more often than not formed the government from 1760 until the Reform Act 1832. Modernising reformers said the traditionalistic party of "Throne, Altar and Cottage" was obsolete, but in the face of an expanding electorate 1830s–1860s it held its strength among royalists, devout Anglicans and landlords and their tenants.
Gladstonian liberalism is a political doctrine named after the British Victorian Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader William Ewart Gladstone. Gladstonian liberalism consisted of limited government expenditure and low taxation whilst making sure government had balanced budgets and the classical liberal stress on self-help and freedom of choice. Gladstonian liberalism also emphasised free trade, little government intervention in the economy and equality of opportunity through institutional reform. It is referred to as laissez-faire or classical liberalism in the United Kingdom and is often compared to Thatcherism.
The Liberal Party was formally established in 1859 and existed until merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to create the Liberal Democrats.
The Liberal government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that began in 1905 and ended in 1915 consisted of two ministries: the first led by Henry Campbell-Bannerman and the final three by H. H. Asquith.
In parliamentary politics, balance of power is a situation in which one or more members of a parliamentary or similar chamber can by their uncommitted vote enable a party to attain and remain in minority government. The term may also be applied to the members who hold that position. The members holding the balance of power may guarantee their support for a government by either joining it in a coalition government or by an assurance that they will vote against any motion of no confidence in the government or will abstain in such a vote. In return for such a commitment, such members may demand legislative or policy commitments from the party they are to support. A person or party may also hold a balance of power in a chamber without any commitment to government, in which case both the government and opposition groupings may on occasion need to negotiate for that person's or party's support.
The Newcastle Programme was a statement of policies passed by the representatives of the English and Welsh Liberal Associations meeting at the annual conference of the National Liberal Federation (NLF) in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1891. The centrepiece of the Newcastle Programme was the primacy of Irish Home Rule, but associated with it were a raft of other reforms, in particular: taxation of land values; abolition of entail; extension of smallholdings; reform of the Lords; shorter parliaments; district and parish councils; registration reform and abolition of plural voting; local veto on drink sales; employers' liability for workers' accidents and disestablishment of the Church of England in Wales and Scotland.
The Carlton Club meeting, on 19 October 1922, was a formal meeting of Members of Parliament who belonged to the Conservative Party, called to discuss whether the party should remain in government in coalition with a section of the Liberal Party under the leadership of Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George. The party leadership favoured continuing, but the party rebels led by Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin argued that participation was damaging the party. The meeting voted decisively against the Coalition, which resulted in its collapse, the resignation of Austen Chamberlain as party leader, and the invitation of Law to form a Government. The Conservatives subsequently won the general election with an overall majority.
The National Liberal Party was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1922 to 1923. It was created as a formal party organisation for those Liberals, led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who supported the Coalition Government (1918–22) and subsequently a revival of the Coalition, after it ceased holding office. It was officially a breakaway from the Liberal Party. The National Liberals ceased to exist in 1923 when Lloyd George agreed to a merger with the Liberal Party.
↑ Walter L. Arnstein, Britain Yesterday and Today: 1832 the Present (6th ed. 1992) p. 125
↑ Herbert Paul (ed.), Letters of Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone (George Allen, 1904), p. 57.
↑ Lord Rosebery, The Budget. Its Principles and Scope. A Speech Delivered to the Commercial Community of Glasgow, 10 September 1909 (London: Arthur L. Humphreys, 1909), pp. 30–31.
↑ Chris Wrigley, "‘Carving the Last Few Columns out of the Gladstonian Quarry’: The Liberal Leaders and the Mantle of Gladstone, 1898–1929", in David Bebbington and Roger Swift (eds), Gladstone Centenary Essays (Liverpool University Press, 2000), p. 247.
↑ David Butler and Dennis Kavanagh, "The British General Election of 1979", Macmillan, 1979, p. 154.
↑ David Dutton, British Politics Since 1945: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Consensus (2nd ed. Blackwell, 1997).
↑ The Observer, 26 September 1982, quoted in Robert Leach, 'What is Thatcherism?', in Martin Burch and Michael Moran (eds.), British Politics: A Reader (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1987), p. 157.
Hammond, J. L. and M. R. D. Foot. Gladstone and Liberalism (1952) online
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. online
Hay, James Roy. Origins of the Liberal Welfare Reforms, 1906–14 (1975) 78pp online
Hazlehurst, Cameron. "Asquith as Prime Minister, 1908–1916," English Historical Review 85#336 (1970), pp.502–531 in JSTOR
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