Financing Social Reforms in 1909

had to include Home Rule in their policy.

The Liberals were reliant on the Labour Party as Labour would only support them in return for favourable legislation for trade unions, assistance for working class candidates to become MPs. This allowed the Labour Party to develop links with uniona and allowed them to field more candidates at future elections, enabling them to challenge the Liberal Party; weakening the Liberals. After the election the budget was re-introduced into parliament and was passed by both houses.

The Liberals were now determined to reform the House of Lords, either by hanging the membership of the House or by removing their right to veto bills. They wasnted the Lords to never again block a measure passed by the House of Commons. Therefore in 1990 they drew up a bill to curb the power of the House of Lords by taking away the power to veto. Reform of the Lords was vital as the Conservatives were strongly opposed to Home Rule for Ireland, and would vote against any Home Rule Bill in the Lords. This was necessary as the Liberals had promised Home Rule to the Irish Nationalists, in return for their support, so reform of the Lords had to take place before Home Rule could be brought in.

The 1910 Parliament Bill proposed that the House of Lords was to have the power to amend or reject those bills the speaker of the Commons certifies to be true money Bills. The Lords veto was abolished, but could delay it for no longer than two years. Also the maximum period between general elections was to be reduced from seven years to five to make

parliament more accountable to electors. Although the Bill was not as radical as it could have been because it did not alter the composition of the Lord. The Bill would easily pass through the House of Commons but to curb the Lords’ power would have to be passed by the Lords themselves.

Asquith planned to ask King Edward Vll to create 570 new peers, who would be willing to outvote the Conservative Lords and therefore ensure the parliament bill was passed. The king only agreed to do this if a general election was held to put the question of Reforming the Lords to the country. However Edward Vll died suddenly in May 1910 and the new King George V tried to get the Liberal and Conservative parties to agree a solution without resorting to the creation of new peers and a Constitutional Conference was called.

The Conservatives offered to reform the compostition of the Lords, but the Liberals remained determined to reduce the Constitutional powers. The Conservatives argued they should still be able to veto constitutional changes unless the public approves change in a referendum. However Asquith was under strong Irish pressure to reject Conservative proposals and eventually King George V agreed to create new peers and a second General Election was held in December 1910.

The Conservatives didn’t get enough seats to justify rejecting the Parliament Bill so Asquith expected the Conservatives to pass the Bill. In 1911 the Parliament Act became law, many Liberal and Labour parites felt that the act did not go far enough as it did nothing to remove or weaken hereditary nature of the House of Lords. The Parliament act helped make

the British Consitution more Democratic. The Lords could never again over-ride the Commons and political power had shifted decisively to the House of Commons.