While it hardly seemed it at the time, this decision put an end to the meteoric rise of Labour as the new force in British politics. For it allowed the return of veteran Liberal Herbert Asquith to the premiership, and although his government only lasted 10 months, the symbolism was clear. The Liberals were the only real alternative to the Conservatives, and Labour didn't have the stomach for office. In the October 1924 election, Labour were pushed into third place, with the Liberals gaining seats and votes despite losing overall.
By relegating Labour to third place, the Liberal party was saved when many thought it had teetered on the brink of collapse. Instead it went on to boast many of the great political men of the twentieth century. The landslides of Archibald Sinclair and Jo Grimmond in 1945, 1950 and 1955 ushered in the public health insurance and decent welfare programme which remains the envy of the world, while Harold Wilson in the 1960s presided over a series of groundbreaking social reforms. However, his inability to tame the trade unions would cost him the premiership in 1969. Perhaps the most fondly remembered Liberal PM of them all, Michael Foot, was one of the greatest orators of his generation, while his successor David Steel was the youngest Prime Minister of the century. Paddy Ashdown and Anthony Blair in the 1990s and 2000s kept Britain on a staunchly pro-European foreign policy line, most notably by bringing in the Euro and distancing the UK from the United States.
But it wasn't just Prime Ministers the Liberal Party threw up. Other great men were Anthony Benn, Chancellor in the 1970s and pioneer of the co-operatives which dominate British industry, while David Owen will be remembered as one of the more colourful Health Secretaries in recent times. Shirley Williams is also held dear in the public mind, although her leadership of the party in the early 1980s was not its most successful phase. And the appearance of the Chancellor Charles Kennedy on Have I Got News For You as guest host meant that the criticisms over his Budgets never really stuck. However it produced its fair share of bores too; Paddy Ashdown drifting off during the 1991 conference speech by his Welfare Secretary John Major is the stuff of political comedy.
The survival of the Liberal Party also had a profound impact on the Conservatives. Headed as they were by an ex-Liberal in Winston Churchill, the party stuck to a broadly liberal agenda in order not to frighten voters, with leaders such as Rab Butler, Iain Macleod and Reginald Maudling being from the left of the party. At times the free market wing of the party did try and take over, such as when Enoch Powell ran to be leader in 1970 following the death of Macleod, only losing narrowly. However, the Powellites were never all powerful, and in 1983 the victorious Prime Minister Francis Pym dealt with their new figurehead, his firebrand Industry Secretary Margaret Thatcher, sacking her from Cabinet. Not until her protege William Hague became leader in 2004 would the Conservatives veer to the right again.
As for Labour, it entered a long period on the fringes of British politics, providing a useful home for those who were too socialist for the Liberals, or those who had risen from the very bottom of British society into politics. From time to time they managed to have some influence, such as during the Wartime Coalition, or when Denis Healey helped to prop up the minority government of David Steel in the mid 1970s. However, the 1980s and 1990s saw the party undergo a mini-revival, with Jack Straw, David Davis and then David Miliband increasing the number of MPs on a radical democratic socialist agenda. Under Miliband, the party came to play a central role in politics following the defeat of Hague's government in the 2011 election, when he became Deputy Prime Minister to Prime Minister Nick Clegg in the Lib-Lab pact. However, Clegg has made it clear some Labour measures are beyond the pale; "There can be no question of nationalising the hospitals, people are happy with the Health Assistance Service as it is" he maintained.
P.S. Prime Ministers, 1924-2011
1924- Herbert Asquith (Lib)
1924-1929- Stanley Baldwin (Con)
1929-1931- David Lloyd George (Lib)
1931-1935- David Lloyd George (Nat Lib)
1935-1938- Stanley Baldwin (Nat Con)
1938-1940- Neville Chamberlain (Nat Con)
1940-1945- Winston Churchill (Coal Con)
1945-1952- Archibald Sinclair (Lib)
1952-1959- Jo Grimond (Lib)
1959-1964- Rab Butler (Con)
1964-1969- Harold Wilson (Lib)
1969-1970- Iain Macleod (Con)
1970-1973- Reginald Maudling (Con)
1973-1976- Michael Foot (Lib)
1976-1978- David Steel (Lib, with Lab support)
1978-1985- Francis Pym (Con)
1985-1991- Michael Heseltine (Con)
1991-1999- Paddy Ashdown (Lib)
1999-2007- Anthony Blair (Lib)
2007-2011- William Hague (Con)
2011- Nick Clegg (Lib-Lab Coal)
P.P.S. Labour Leaders, 1924-2011
1924-1929- Ramsay MacDonald
1929-1935- Arthur Henderson
1935-1946- Clement Attlee
1946-1955- Herbert Morrison
1955-1963- Hugh Gaitskell
1963-1969- George Brown
1969-1978- Denis Healey
1978-1984- Stan Orme
1984-1991- Neil Kinnock
1991-1999- Jack Straw
1999-2008- David Davis
2008-2011- David Miliband
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