Liberal Party (UK) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Liberal Party
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| Founded | 9 June 1859 |
| Dissolved | 2 March 1988 |
| Merger of | Whigs, Radicals, Peelites |
| Merged into | Liberal Democrats |
| Headquarters | Offices at the National Liberal Club, 1 Whitehall Place, London |
| Ideology | Liberalism (British) Internal factions: • Classical liberalism • Social liberalism |
| Political position | Centre |
| National affiliation | SDP–Liberal Alliance (1981–88) |
| European affiliation | Federation of European Liberal Democrats (1976–88) |
| International affiliation | Liberal International (1947–88) |
| European Parliament group | Liberal and Democratic Group (1976–85) Liberal and Democratic Reformist Group (1985–88) |
| Colours | Yellow |
The Liberal Party was a liberal political party. It was one of the two big political parties in the United Kingdom in the 19th and early 20th century.
The party came from an alliance of Whigs and free-trade Peelites and radicals in the 1850s. In the next 50 years it formed four governments under William Gladstone.
The party split over the issue of Irish Home Rule. It returned to power in 1906 with a landslide victory. They introduced the welfare reforms that created a basic British welfare state.
H. H. Asquith was Liberal Prime Minister between 1908 and 1916. He was followed by David Lloyd George, whose premiership lasted until 1922. At that time the coalition the party had formed with the Conservative Party in World War I came to an end.
By the end of the 1920s, the Labour Party had replaced the Liberals as the Conservatives' main rival. The party went into decline. By the 1950s, it won no more than six seats at general elections.
Apart from notable by-election victories, the party's fortunes did not improve significantly until it formed the SDP-Liberal Alliance with the newly formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981. At the 1983 General Election, the Alliance won over a quarter of the vote, but only 23 of the 650 seats it contested. At the 1987 General Election, it won less than 23% of the vote.
The Liberal and Social Democratic parties merged in 1988 to form the Liberal Democrats.
Prominent intellectuals associated with the Liberal Party include the philosopher John Stuart Mill, the economist John Maynard Keynes and social planner William Beveridge.
Images for kids
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William Gladstone
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Liberal politicians David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill enacted the 1909 People's Budget which specifically aimed at the redistribution of wealth.
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Liberal poster c. 1905–1910, clockwise from the left: Joseph Chamberlain (satirised as an unmarried mother leaving her baby at a Foundling hospital) abandons his commitment to old age pensions after failing to reach agreement with the Friendly Societies; Chancellor Austen Chamberlain threatens duties on consumer items which had been removed by Gladstone (in the picture on the wall); Chinese indentured labour in South Africa; John Bull contemplates his vote; and Joseph Chamberlain and Arthur Balfour (who favoured retaliatory tariffs) wearing top hats. The heading "ratepayers money for sectarian schools" refers to the Education Act 1902.
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David Lloyd George
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A crowd waits outside Leeds Town Hall to see them elect a Liberal Party candidate during the 1880 general elections.
See also
In Spanish: Partido Liberal (Reino Unido) para niños
