How and why was the Parliamentary Act of 1911 Passed

1
How and why was the Parliamentary Act of 1911
Passed?
2
Why the Liberals needed more money

• Reforms up to 1909 Old Age Pensions
• More reforms in the future National Insurance.
• Defence spending Dreadnoughts.

3
The Peoples Budget 1909.

• Lloyd George - Chancellor of the Exchequer.
• Proposed progressive taxation, car and petrol tax
  to pay for road construction, increased
  inheritance tax, and a twenty per cent tax on
  capital gain of land when it changed hands.
• Levy on undeveloped land needed a land
  evaluation, which might lead to future taxes.

4

• The Budget - House of Commons - Passed by 379 to
  149.
• House of Lords - November 1909 rejected the
  budget
• It raised a simple but important question who
  governed Britain?

5

• Asquith called a General Election on the issue of
  peers versus people.

6
January 1910 General Election

• Liberal - 275
• Irish National - 82
• Labour- 40
• Conservative and Unionist - 273

7
Passing the budget

• When the new Parliament met, the Budget, almost a
  year after it had first been introduced, passed
  virtually unnoticed through both Houses.

8
Restricting the power of the Lords

• He put forward the Parliament Bill in April 1910
  to remove the Lords veto powers.
• Edward VII said that Asquith could not continue
  with the Bill until a second general election was
  held.
• Then the king died in May 1910

9

• Asquith asked the new king to create 100 new
  Liberal peers so that the Bill would pass the
  House of Lords (Mr. Balfours Poodle).
• King George agreed but only if Asquith called
  another General Election to gain a mandate from
  the people.

10
December 1910 Election

• Liberal - 272
• Irish Nationals - 84
• Labour - 42
• Conservative and Unionists - 272

11
Dilemma

• The Liberals could now claim a mandate to pass
  the Parliament Bill
• They could also press the new King to guarantee
  a mass creation of Liberal peers in the event of
  the Lords vetoing the Parliament Bill.

12

• In the Commons Asquith announced that the King
  had promised to create as many as 500 new Liberal
  peers if necessary, to get the Bill through the
  House of Lords.
• He was shouted down by Lord Henry Cecil with
  shouts of Traitor!
• Asquith could not continue his speech.

13
What should the Conservatives do?

• There was now a split in the Conservatives in the
  Lords.
• The Hedgers were prepared to vote with the
  Government.
• The Ditchers, under Lord Halsbury were ready to
  die in the last ditch.

14
Passing of the Parliament Act 1911

• When it came to the vote Lord Lansdowne and the
  majority of the hedgers, abstained.
• Lord Curzon and 36 supporters actually voted with
  the government (the Rats).
• The ditchers voted against the Bill. The Bill
  was passed by 131 votes to 114.

15
The Parliament Act 1911

• The Lords were not allowed to amend or reject a
  finance bill and the Speaker of the House of
  Commons was to decide which were finance bills
• The Lords could still amend and reject other
  bills, but if a bill passed the Commons in three
  successive sessions of parliament and was
  rejected three times by the Lords, it would
  automatically become law on its third rejection
  by the Lords.
• There was to be a general election at least every
  five years instead of seven years.