1171 Herbert Asquith

Constituency : East  Fife  1886-18, Paisley  1920-24

There's  no  doubting  who  the  most  important  figure  elected  in  1886  was. The  old  cliche  that  all  political  careers  end  in  failure  was  never  more  true  than  in  Herbert's  case  and  his  miserable  last  decade  has  tended  to  obscure  what  an  outstanding  Prime  Minister  he  actually  was.

Herbert  removed  the  Liberal  Unionist  defector  John  Kinnear  at  East  Fife  in  a  tight  contest.

Herbert  was  the  son  of  a  Congregationalist  wool  merchant  from  Yorkshire. His  father  died  when  he  was  10  and  he  lived  with  uncles  in  Huddersfield  and  London. He  attended  City  of  London  School  and  won  a  scholarship  to  Balliol  College, Oxford. He  was  president  of  the  Oxford  Union  and  became  a  barrister. He  soon  became  prosperous. In  1877  he  married  a  doctor's  daughter  named  Helen  who  died  of  typhoid  fever  in  1891  having  given  birth  to  four  of  his  children..

Herbert's  talents  were  quickly  noted  in  Parliament. Gladstone  invited  hi  to  dinner  after  his  maiden  speech .In  1892,  Gladstone  made  him  Home  Secretary  despite  his  never  having  held  office  before.   In  1894  he  married  Margot, daughter  of  his  fellow  Liberal  MP  Charles  Tennant.

Herbert  was  touted  for  party  leader  in  1898  but  declined  to  stand  preferring  to  earn  more  money  as  a  barrister.  The  new  leader, Campbell-Bannerman  wanted  him  in significant  debates  because  of  his  command  of  facts  and   debating  style and  would  say  "Send  for  the  sledgehammer !"  He  was  effectively  used  as  a  public  speaker  against  Chamberlain's  Tariff  Reform  campaign.

Herbert  was  part  of  the  so-called  Relugas  Compact  against  Campbell-Bannerman  but  instead  accepted  the  offer  of  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  and  effective  deputy  Prime  Minister.
As  Chancellor  he  moved  the  first  steps  towards  old  age  pensions, with  small  means-tested  pensions  for  those  over  70.

When  Campbell-Bannerman  had  to  resign  Herbert  was  his  undisputed  successor. He  promoted  Lloyd  George  to  succeed  him  and  Winston  Churchill  to  replace  the  Welshman  at  the  Board  of  Trade. He  also  sacked  a number  of  peers  who  complained  that  he  had  not  been  gentlemanly  about  it.  His  Cabinet  is  generally  agreed  to  have  been  one  of  the  most  distinguished  that  was  ever  assembled  and  his  management  of  such  a  group  of  disparate  talents  a  major  feather  in  his  cap.

Herbert  soon  ran  into  the  problem  that  had  bedevilled  Campbell-Bannerman, the  large  Unionist  majority  in  the  House  of  Lords  which  thought  nothing  of  wrecking  or  emasculating  bills  passed  in  the  Commons  where  they  were  now  so  weak. After  they'd  mauled  a  licensing  bill  and  two  Scottish  bills   Herbert  and  Lloyd  George  decided  to  test  them  with  a  provocative  Finance  Bill  which  the  Lords  traditionally  didn't  oppose.

Herbert  gave  fair  warning  of  this  in  a  speech  in  December  1908  and  Lloyd  George's  Budget  of  1909  introduced  a  major  expansion  of  death  duties and  a  tax  on  undeveloped  land  to  pay  for  expansion  of  the  social  welfare  programme. Most  Liberals  got  behind  it  although  Rosebery  denounced  it  as  "inquisitorial, tyrannical  and  Socialistic". The  Lords, led  by  Lansdowne  duly  rejected  it  as  lacking  an  electoral  mandate  and  Herbert  got  a  dissolution  of  Parliament  after  a  motion  denouncing  the  Lords' action  as  unconstitutional  was  passed  by  the  Commons.

The  January  1910  election  returned  almost  equal  numbers  of  Liberals  and  Tories  but  Herbert  was  able  to  continue  with  the  support  of  Labour  and  Irish  Nationalists, neither  of  whom  were  going  to  defend  the  Lords'  privileges. There  was  no  question  of  the  budget  being  rejected  now  but  the  larger  issue  of  the  Lords  veto  became  the  uppermost  political  question. Herbert  was  obliged  to  admit  that  he  had  not  asked  Edward  VII  to  agree  to  create  new  Liberal  peers  which  many  had  assumed  he  had. The  Cabinet  decided  to  press  ahead  with  Campbell-Bannerman's  plan  to  remove  the  veto  on  money  bills  and  reduce  it  to  a  three  year  delaying  power  on  other  legislation. Herbert  hinted  during  the  debate  that  he  would  approach  the  king  on  the  question  of  peers.

This  was  scuppered  by  Edward's  death  in  May  1910. Herbert  felt  obliged  to  hold  cross  party  talks  to  avoid  putting  too  much  pressure  on  the  new  monarch. These  foundered  on  the  Unionists'    realisation  that  the  Lords  would  not  be  able  to  block  Home  Rule  indefinitely   under  the  Liberal  proposals. When  the  Parliament  Bill  was  rejected  in  November  Herbert  asked   George  V  for  both  a  dissolution  and  a  commitment  to  create  enough  Liberal  peers  to  pass  the  Parliament  Act. To  the  king's  protests  he  answered  that  the  government  would  have  to  resign  if  this  was  refused. The  king  gave  way.

The  ensuing  election  produced  almost  exactly  the  same  result  keeping  Herbert  firmly  in  charge. The  Parliament  Bill  went  through  the  Commons  but  was  heavily  amended  in  the  Lords. Herbert  went  to  the  King  who  asked  that  his  pledge  be  made  public  so  that  the  Lords  could  reconsider  their  opposition.  After  a  fierce  debate  the  Parliament  Act  was  confirmed  by  a  small  majority  and  Herbert  had  irrevocably  reduced  the  power  of  the  Lords.

With  the  Lords' resistance  broken,  the  Liberals  could  press  on  with  their  social  agenda  and  old  age  pensions, unemployment  insurance  and  labour  exchanges  were  all  introduced  on  Herbert's  watch. However  the  government  faced  major  challenges.  They  had  to  deal  with  the  suffragettes'  campaign  for  female  suffrage  to  which  Herbert  was  personally  opposed . This  was  not  in  tune  with  the  majority  of  his  party  but  he  could  not  be  convinced  that  it  would  improve  the  system  of  government  and  the  violence  of  the  campaign  hardened  his  resistance  to  it. He  did  eventually  signal  his  support  for  it  in  1917  but  is  still  criticised  for  his  previous  opposition.  The  years  1912 to  1914  also  saw  major  industrial  unrest  although  , despite  the  apprehensions  of  many, it  never  crystallised  into  a  direct  challenge  to  the  government.

The  major  challenge  though  came  over  Ireland. As he  came  from  the  imperialist  wing  of  the  party  Herbert  had  no  great  enthusiasm  for  Home  Rule  and  absented  himself  from  the  cabinet  committee   that  drew  up  the  third  Home  Rule  Bill  in  1912. However  he  was  fully  aware  that  he  could  not  alienate  the  Nationalists  when  they  formed  an  important  part  of  his  parliamentary  majority. All  too  aware  that  the  Bill  could  only  be  delayed  for  three  years  the  Unionists  campaigned  on  the  issue  of  Ulster  and  threatened  to  support  extra-parliamentary  action  if  it  were  not  excluded  from  the  legislation. Civil  war  in  Ireland  seemed  about  to  break  out  when  the  First  World  War  erupted  and  the  Nationalist  leader  John  Redmond  accepted  the  need   to  delay  its  implementation.

The  War  could  not  have  gone  much  worse  for  Herbert.  That  wasn't  immediately  apparent  as  the  Cabinet  members  who  resigned   on  its  outbreak   were  dead  wood  anyway    but  by  the end  of  the  year  it  was  clear  that  the  War  was  creating  great  strains  in  the  party. The  general  European  war  was  exactly  what  Free  Trade  was  supposed  to  prevent  and  its  existence  and  the  methods  needed  to  wage  it  drove  great  wedges  between  former  colleagues.

In  May  1915  a  twin  crisis  caused  by  a  munitions  shortage  and  the  costly  failure  of   the  Gallipoli  campaign   obliged   Herbert  to  take  the  Unionists  into  his  government  , sacrificing  Haldane  and  Churchill  as  the  price  but  keeping  most  of  the  important  offices  in  Liberal  hands. Herbert  also  had  a  personal  crisis  to  deal  with  that  year   when  a  young  woman  Venetia  Stanley  who  may  or  may  not  have  been  his  mistress  but  was  certainly  his  greatest  confidante  married  his  colleague  Edwin  Montagu  whom  he  had  previously  disparaged  as  "the  Assyrian". This  increased  his  fondness  for  drink  and  self-indulgence  leading  to  a  lethargy  that  ill-suited  a  wartime  premier.

Things  did  not  get  easier. He  lost  an  important  Liberal  colleague  John  Simon  over  conscription. He  was  widely  criticised  for  indecision  over  the  Easter  Rising  particularly  in  not  halting  the  counter-productive  executions  that  followed. He  then  suffered  a  terrible  personal  blow when  his  brilliant  son  Raymond  became  the  most  prominent   casualty  at  the  Battle  of  the  Somme.

While  he  was  reeling  from   this , Lloyd  George  who  was  prosecuting  the  war  with  every  ounce  of  his  formidable  energy  and  fast  picking  up  Unionist  admirers  as  a  result  started  campaigning  for  a  smaller  more  effective  committee  to  manage  the  war  with  him  as  chair. Herbert  agreed  at  first  as  long  as  the  committee  reported  to  him  but  when  an  article  in  The  Times   presented  this  as  a  sidelining  of  himself  he  said  he  must  chair  it  personally. He  believed  that  Lloyd  George  was  encouraging  some  of  the  press  attacks  on  him.

Lloyd  George  resigned  as  did  Balfour  despite  Herbert's  previous  support  for  him  against  criticism. With  the  Conservatives  now  less  willing  to  support  him   Herbert   and  the  majority  of  the  Liberal  Cabinet  resigned , apparently  believing  that  no  one  could  form  a  government  without  him. The  King  could  not  persuade  him  to  serve  under  Bonar  Law  or  Balfour. Bonar  Law  declined  to  form  a  government  without  him. Balfour  then  agreed  to  become  Foreign  Secretary  if  Lloyd  George  formed  a  government  ensuring   the  support  of  a significant  section  of   both  parties. Labour  also  endorsed  this  arrangement. Herbert  had  over-played  his  hand.

Herbert  and  most  of  the  Liberal  ministers  refused  to  join  the  government  and  instead  offered  "general  support"  from  the  backbenches  but  soon  found  this  a  very  difficult  position  to  occupy.  Over  a  third  of  his  party's  MPs   were  backing  Lloyd  George  to  see  the  war  through  to  a  successful  conclusion  and  the  pacifist  wing  were  thoroughly  disgusted  with  him.  He  challenged  Lloyd  George  over  the  Supreme War  Council  and  the  removal  of  General  Robertson  but  found  that  Lloyd  George's  greatest  political  card  was  the  thought  of  himself  returning  to  power.   Herbert's  biggest  challenge  came  in  the  Maurice  debate  over  an  accusation  that  Lloyd  George  was  withholding  troops  from  the  front. He  led  the  attack  in  the  Commons   but  then  faltered, apparently  losing  the  nerve  to  bring  down  the  government. Shortly  afterwards  he  was  offered  the  job  of  Lord  Chancellor  but  refused  to  go  to  the  Lords.

In  the  1918  General  Election  Lloyd  George  and  Bonar  Law  didn't  want  him  opposed  but  the  local  Conservative  association, seeing  an  opportunity  to  bring  down  their  old  enemy, put  up  a  candidate   who  spectacularly  defeated  him.  Lloyd  George  declined  his  overtures  to  go  to  the  Paris  Peace  Conference. Herbert  had  all  the  blame  for  Britain's  entry  into  the  war  and  none  of  the  kudos  for  winning  it.

In  1920  Herbert  returned  to  Parliament  in  a  by-election  at  Paisley ( on  the  death  of  one  of  the  few  "Asquithian "  MPs ) .  This  was  despite  a  public  letter  by  a  number of  former  Liberal  MPs  who'd  gone  over  to  Labour  denouncing  him .He  became  Leader  of  the  feeble  Liberal  rump  and  attempted  to  broaden  the  Opposition  in  talks  with  the  dissident  Tory  Robert  Cecil  but  the  latter  saw  him  as  damaged  goods  and  wanted  Grey  to  take  over. Even  staunch  opponents  of  Lloyd  George  within  the  Liberal  party  such  as  Herbert  Gladstone privately  criticised  him  as  old  and  out  of  touch. C P  Scott  described  him  as  "a  great  boulder  blocking  the  way". Llewellyn  Williams  recorded  that  he  hardly  contributed  at  all  to  the  talk  at  a  Bar  dinner.

Still  Herbert  hoped  for  better  times. He  presided  over  a  modest  revival  of  Liberal  fortunes  at  the  1922  election   then  accepted  the  submission  of  Lloyd  George  and  his  supporters  to wage  a  unified  campaign   against  Baldwin's  call  for  protectionism  in  1923. In  the  closest  thing  to  a  three  way  split  of  seats  the  UK  system  has  ever  produced,  the  Liberals  came  a  good  third .  Baldwin  refused  to  abandon  Protection  to  avoid  having  to  do  any  sort  of  deal  with  Lloyd  George  so  Herbert  had  to  decide  what  to  do  about  Labour.

Herbert   made  his  final  miscalculation. He  let  Labour  take  office  as  a  minority  government  rather  than   negotiate  a  coalition. He  seems  to  have  thought  McDonald  would  recognise  his  own  incompetence  and  call  the  Liberals  in  to  the  government  before  long  when  he  could  dictate  terms  and  the  Liberals  would  be  "masters  of  the  situation". He  didn't  realise  that  McDonald  was  less  bothered  about  staying  in  government  than  destroying  the  party  that  had  rejected  him  as  a  candidate. He  simply  dared  the  Liberals  to  turf  him  out  and  fight  another  election  in  which  Labour  would  contest  all  their  seats. This  happened  nine  months  later  over  the  Campbell  affair.

In  the  1924  election  the  Liberals  were  trashed  and  Herbert  once  again  suffered  a  crushing  personal  defeat   losing  Paisley  by  2,228 votes. The  Conservatives  chose  not  to  oppose  him  so  the  maverick  young  Labour  candidate  should  have  had  no  chance  but  it  seems  as  if  the  desire  to  be  rid  of  a  redundant  old  relic  transcended  normal  political  loyalties. The  Labour  man  seemed  more  upset  about  it  than  Herbert  himself  and  was  in  floods  of  tears  at  the  result.

There  was  talk  of  finding  Herbert  a  seat  in  the  rural  fastnesses  of  Wales  but  he  rejected  the  idea  of  being  Lloyd  George's  neighbour  outright. Instead  he  agreed  to  go  to  the  Lords  as  Earl  of  Oxford  and  Asquith. Even  this  caused  controversy  as  his  title  was  challenged  by  the  historic  De  Vere  family  as  too  close  to  their  own  designation.  That  same  year  he  lost  out  for  the  Chancellorship  of  his  beloved  Oxford.Tension  between  his  supporters  and  those  of  Lloyd  George  soon  re-surfaced  and  the  two  men  fell  out   again  over  the  General  Strike. Herbert  proposed  to  discipline  him  over  his  failure  to  support  the  party  line - an  absurdity  given  the  Liberals'  parlous  position   but  his  move  was  abruptly  curtailed by  a  severe  stroke  which  forced  his  final  retirement  from  public  life.

Herbert  was  generally  genial  and  in  control  of  himself  despite  his  nickname  of  "Squiffy". He  had  a  reputation  for  being  a  nuisance  towards  young  women  but  seems  to  have  known  when  to  stop  his  advances.

He  died  two  years  later  aged  75 . He  left  a  fairly  modest  sum  having  spent  most  of  his  earnings  on  socialising.