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Parties and leaders

Richard Gaunt

Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham

At the end of the eighteenth century, most politicians would have thought of themselves as Whigs, in that they supported the constitutional arrangements between the monarchy, the House of Lords, and the House of Commons established at the Glorious Revolution of 1688; the term Tory retained negative associations of resistance to change. The early nineteenth century saw the adaptation of the latter term to denote opposition to constitutional reform; following the battle over the 1832 Reform Act, Sir Robert Peel and his followers instead described themselves as Conservatives. The Conservative party divided after Peel repealed the Corn Laws in 1846 and did not gain another parliamentary majority until 1874. Meanwhile, their opponents – Whigs, Peelite Conservatives, radicals, and Irish MPs – came together to form the Liberal party, an alliance/coalition formalised in 1859. The Liberals divided over Gladstone’s Irish Home Rule Bill in 1886, and the Liberal Unionists, who broke away in opposition to the measure, eventually joined the Conservative and Unionist party in 1912. Increasing interest in working-class political causes led to the formation of the Labour party in 1900. This drew on a century of active trade unionism and a well-developed body of socialist political writing. At the outbreak of the First World War, Britain had three major political parties – Conservative, Labour, and Liberal – each of which was internally divided over Ireland, Free Trade, and votes for women.

Political leadership was exercised by a social as well as political elite: the term Whig was a description of landed aristocrats as much as a political definition. The last Prime Minister to serve from the House of Lords was Lord Salisbury, who retired in 1902. Throughout this period, party leadership was decided on the basis of administrative competence, speaking ability, and the strength of personal support, rather than by contests between candidates in leadership elections.

Historians remain fascinated by these complex and shifting processes as well as the personalities who exercised power during this period. This Routledge Historical Resource offers an extensive choice of primary sources and secondary literature to introduce you to these crucial topics. Philip Salmon’s essay ‘Parties and the life of parliament’ provides an excellent introduction. Eric Evans’s Political Parties in Britain, 1783–1867 considers major developments before 1867, while Robert C. Self’s Evolution of the British Party System examines the period after 1885. Among primary sources, individual leaders can be studied in Lives of Victorian Political Figures: Part 1, which covers Palmerston, Disraeli, and Gladstone, and Sir Robert Peel: Contemporary Perspectives. The ideas underpinning the major parties are explored in depth in the multi-volume series Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Conservatism, Contemporary Thought on Nineteenth Century Liberalism, and A History of British Socialism.