The Unionist Free Food League was a British pressure group formed on 13 July 1903 by Conservative and Liberal Unionist politicians who believed in free trade and who wished to campaign against Joseph Chamberlain's proposals for Tariff Reform, which would involve an import tax on food. About 40 Conservative and 20 Liberal Unionist MPs attended the initial meeting. The former Unionist Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Michael Hicks Beach, became president of the group. He was replaced in October 1903 by the Liberal Unionist party leader, the Duke of Devonshire.[1]
Whereas Chamberlain's Tariff Reform League was a grass-roots organisation which had captured 300 Unionist constituency associations by 1906, the Unionist Free Trade Club was little more than a parliamentary group and so was much less effective.[3] Unionist Free Traders were also unable to persuade any newspapers to support them, with only the Conservative weekly magazine The Spectator supported their cause.
In 1906, after the General Election, there were 16 Free Trade Unionists MPs left. Some, like Hugh Cecil, lost their seat due to a split vote with a Tariff Reformer and so both lost out to the Liberal candidate. By the end of 1910, following two more General Elections, the only survivor in the House of Commons was Hugh Cecil (who was returned for one of Oxford University's seats), with just a few adherents left in the House of Lords, like Henry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford.
1908 Punch cartoon on lack of support for the Unionist Free Trade Club
Notes
↑ Huw Clayton, 'How not to run a political campaign: The Failure of the Unionist Free Traders. 1903-1906', Parliamentary History, Volume 30 Issue 2 (June 2011).
↑ Robin Harris, The Conservatives: A History (2013).
↑ Robert Blake, The Conservative Party from Peel to Major (London: Arrow, 1998), p. 181.
Joseph Chamberlain was a British statesman who was first a radical Liberal, then, after opposing home rule for Ireland, a Liberal Unionist, and eventually served as a leading imperialist in coalition with the Conservatives. He split both major British parties in the course of his career. He was father, by different marriages, of Nobel Peace Prize winner Austen Chamberlain and of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.
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.
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour,, also known as Lord Balfour, was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1902 to 1905. As foreign secretary in the Lloyd George ministry, he issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917 on behalf of the cabinet.
Andrew Bonar Law was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923.
The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords, in order to get a mandate to pass the budget.
The 1906 United Kingdom general election was held from 12 January to 8 February 1906.
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.
Imperial Preference was a system of mutual tariff reduction enacted throughout the British Empire following the Ottawa Conference of 1932. As Commonwealth Preference, the proposal was later revived in regard to the members of the Commonwealth of Nations. Joseph Chamberlain, the powerful colonial secretary from 1895 until 1903, argued vigorously that Britain could compete with its growing industrial rivals and thus maintain Great Power status. The best way to do so would be to enhance internal trade inside the worldwide British Empire, with emphasis on the more developed areas — Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa — that had attracted large numbers of British settlers.
The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competition. It was well funded and included politicians, intellectuals and businessmen, and was popular with the grassroots of the Conservative Party. It was internally opposed by the Unionist Free Food League but that had virtually disappeared as a viable force by 1910. By 1914 the Tariff Reform League had approximately 250,000 members. It is associated with the national campaign of Joseph Chamberlain, the most outspoken and charismatic supporter of Tariff Reform. The historian Bruce Murray has claimed that the TRL "possessed fewer prejudices against large-scale government expenditure than any other political group in Edwardian Britain".
Free Trader was a political label used in the United Kingdom by several candidates in the 1906 general election and January 1910 general election. Many were Conservative Party or Liberal Unionist politicians opposed to Joseph Chamberlain's campaign for tariff reform.
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The Barkston Ash by-election, 1905 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Barkston Ash, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on 13 October 1905.
The Ashburton by-election, 1904 was a parliamentary by-election held in England on 7 January 1904 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the British House of Commons constituency of Ashburton in Devon. It was triggered by the death of the sitting Liberal Party MP Charles Seale-Hayne.
The Buteshire by-election, 1905 was a by-election held on 3 March 1905 for the British House of Commons constituency of Buteshire.
The Rochester by-election, 1903 was a parliamentary by-election held in England in September 1903 for the House of Commons constituency of Rochester in Kent.
The Manchester North West by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 8 August 1912. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.
The Ayr Burghs by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. The constituency included the Ayrshire burghs of Ayr and Irvine and the Argyllshire burghs of Campbeltown, Inverary and Oban.
The Manchester North West by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.
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