1674 Charles Masterman

Constituency : West  Ham North  1906-11, Bethnal  Green  South  West  1911-14, Manchester  Rusholme  1923-4

Charles  took  West  Ham  North  from  the  Tories. He  was  an  important  figure  in  the  party  but  did  have  an  unfortunate  record  of  losing  elections  even  in  apparently  favourable  circumstances.

Charles  was  educated  at  Cambridge  where  he  became  President  of  the  Union. He  became  an  academic. He  was  interested  in  social  reform  and  literature  and  published  a  number  of  essays  before  his  election. He  stood  in  a  by-election  at  Dulwich  in  1903. He  was  a  Christian  Socialist.

Charles  was  a  Radical although  his  solutions  were  rooted  in  Victorian  paternalism.  Charles  got  Asquith's  agreement  to  reshape  the  Local  Government  Board  before  he  became  Parliamentary  Secretary  in  1908.  In  909  he  became  Under-Secretary  to  the  Home  Office.

In  1909  Charles  published  his  best  known  work , The  Condition  of  England  with  a  focus  on  the  working  class. He  worked  with  Churchill  and  Lloyd  George  on  the  People's  Budget. He  encouraged  Lloyd  George  to  be  radical  on  land.He  actually  wrote  much  of  the  legislation  of  this  period.

In  December  1910  Charles's  re-election  was  declared  void  because  his  agent  had  failed  to  make  sure  the  expenses  limit  was  not  breached. Charles's  integrity  was  not  questioned  but  the  Conservative  got  the  result  declared  void  and  Charles  was not  allowed  to  stand  again.

Later  in  the  year , Charles  came  back  in  at  Bethnal  Green  South  West  despite  what  he  called  vicious  libels  by  the  Unionists. He  became  financial  secretary  to  the  Treasury  in  1912  and  was  responsible  for  piloting  the  National  Insurance  Bill  through  the  Commons. He  was  a go-between  for  Lloyd  George  in  his  dealings  with  the Labour  MPs.

In  1914  Charles  was  promoted  to  the  Cabinet  as  Chancellor  of  the  Duchy  of  Lancaster  but  lost  his  seat  in  the  by-election  to  confirm  his  appointment  perhaps  due  to  the  intervention  of  a  Socialist  candidate  John  Scurr. He  was  also  attacked  over  National  Insurance  and  by  Haoratio  Bottomley  over  a  supposed  failure  to  investigate  abuse  in  a  reformatory.  

Charles  was  then  selected  to contest  Ipswich. He  had  misgivings  feeling  that  the  small  employers  there  were  hostile  to  National  Insurance  and  the  Protestants  would  vote  against  him  over  Home  Rule. Lloyd  George  came  to  speak  for  him . Scurr  seems  to  have  had  a  personal  animus  against  Charles   and  stood  there  as  well  although  the  margin  of  defeat  was  greater  than  Scurr's  vote.

Charles  was  in  favour  of  Britain's  entry  into  World  War  One  and  became  head  of  the  War  Propaganda  Bureau  enlisting  patriotic  writers  like  Buchan  and  Conan  Doyle  to  boost  morale  and  feed  the  media, He  commissioned  films  like  The  Battle  of  the  Somme  for  the  home  audience. He  publicised  reports  of  the  Armenian  Genocide. He  also  worked  hard  to  persuade  the  USA  to  enter  the  war. in  1917  Lloyd  George   subsumed  the  Bureau  into  Buchan's  Department  for  Information  and   demoted  Charles  to  Buchan's  deputy.

Lloyd  George  failed  to  help  him  get  re-elected  at  Stratford  West  Ham  where  he  was  beaten  by  a  couponed  Conservative.

In  Februrary  1920  Charles  published  a  plan  for  fusion  of  the  Unionists  and  Coaltion  Liberals  as  the  "New  Democratic  Party"  but  observed  that  the window  od  opportunity  for  launching  it  was  shrinking  as  the  government's  popularity  declined.

 In  1921, Charles  championed  a  radical  programme  put  forward  by  the  Manchester  Liberals  calling  for  a  National  Industrial  Council  , supervision  of  trusts  and  combines  and  nationalisation  of  some  monopolies. He  was  the  main  author  of  the  party's  industrial  policy.

In  1922  Charles  published  the  books  How  England  is  Governed  and  England  after  War.

In  the  election  that  year  Charles  was  invited  by  the  local  Liberals  to  contest  Clay  Cross  in  Derbyshire  which  was  being  defended  by  a  Coalition  Liberal, Thomas  Broad. Labour  won  the  seat  easily  with  57%  of  the  vote  but  Charles  pushed  Broad  into  third  place.

Charles  opposed  reunion  with  the  Coalition  Liberals  and  threatened  to  defect  to  Labour  if  it  happened. In  the  event  he  accepted  it  and  stood  for  Manchester  Rusholme  which  he  took  from  the  Tories,

During  the  1923-24  Parliament,  Charles  rather  ostentatiously  coached  some  of  the  new  Labour  ministers.  His  tactlessness  was  resented .He  opposed  the  loan  to  the  Soviet  government. He  blamed  Macdonald  for  the  collapse  of  Liberal-Labour  co-operation.

Charles  was  easily  defeated  in  1924. He  became  parliamentary  correspondent  to  The  Nation.  He  became  semi-reconciled  to  Lloyd  George  as  the  latter  rejuvenated  party  policy,  writing  that  "When  Lloyd  George  came  back  to  the  party, ideas  came  back  to  the  party ". He  participated  in  the  reviews  on  energy  and  Britain's  industrial  future  ( the  "Yellow  Book ").

Charles  was  prone  to  mood  swings  and  could  come  across  as  cynical  and  self-righteous  which  may  have  been  why  he  lost  so  many  elections.

Charles  had  problems  with  drug  and  alcohol  abuse  and  his  health  declined. He  died  in  1927  aged  54.