Prime Minister
The Liberals found themselves suddenly returned to power in December 1905 when Arthur Balfour resigned as Prime Minister, prompting Edward VII to invite Campbell-Bannerman to form a minority government as the first Liberal Prime Minister of the 20th century. At 69, he was the oldest person to become Prime Minister for the first time in the 20th century. Balfour had hoped that Campbell-Bannerman would not be able to form a strong government, ushering in a general election that he could win. Campbell-Bannerman also faced problems within his own party, through the so-called "Relugas Compact" between H. H. Asquith, Sir Edward Grey and Richard Haldane, who planned to force him into the House of Lords, weakening him as Prime Minister and effectively allowing Asquith to govern as Leader of the House of Commons. Campbell-Bannerman saw off both of these issues by immediately dissolving Parliament and calling a general election, whilst offering the positions of Chancellor of the Exchequer, Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for War to Asquith, Grey and Haldane respectively, which all three accepted. In his first public speech as Prime Minister on 22 December 1905, Campbell-Bannerman launched the Liberal election campaign, focusing on the traditional Liberal platform of "peace, retrenchment and reform":
"Expenditure calls for taxes, and taxes are the plaything of the tariff reformer. Militarism, extravagance, protection are weeds which grow in the same field, and if you want to clear the field for honest cultivation you must root them all out. For my own part, I do not believe that we should have been confronted by the spectre of protection if it had not been for the South African war. Depend upon it that in fighting for our open ports and for the cheap food and material upon which the welfare of the people and the prosperity of our commerce depend we are fighting against those powers, privileges, injustices, and monopolies which are unalterably opposed to the triumph of democratic principles."
Helped by the Lib-Lab pact that he had negotiated, the splits in the Conservatives over free trade and the positive election campaign that he fought, the Liberals won by a landslide, gaining 216 seats. The Conservatives saw their number of seats more than halve, and Arthur Balfour, now as Leader of the Opposition, lost his Manchester East seat to the Liberals. Campbell-Bannerman would be the last ever Liberal to lead his party to an absolute majority in the House of Commons. Now with a majority of 125, Campbell-Bannerman was successfully returned to Downing Street as a considerably-strengthened Prime Minister. The defeat of the Relugas conspirators in the wake of this stunning victory was later referred to as "one of the most delicious comedies in British political history".
Whereas in the past it had never been used formally, Campbell-Bannerman was the first First Lord of the Treasury to be given official use of the title "Prime Minister", a standard that continues to the present day. In 1907, by virtue of being the Member of Parliament with the longest continuous service, Campbell-Bannerman achieved the honour of becoming the Father of the House, the only serving British Prime Minister to do so to date.
Read more about this topic: Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Famous quotes containing the words prime minister, prime and/or minister:
“One wants in a Prime Minister a good many things, but not very great things. He should be clever but need not be a genius; he should be conscientious but by no means strait-laced; he should be cautious but never timid, bold but never venturesome; he should have a good digestion, genial manners, and, above all, a thick skin.”
—Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)
“One’s prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognize your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.”
—Muriel Spark (b. 1918)
“He had a gentleman-like frankness in his behaviour, and as a great point of honour as a minister can have, especially a minister at the head of the treasury, where numberless sturdy and insatiable beggars of condition apply, who cannot all be gratified, nor all with safety be refused.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)