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National Government (1931)

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National Government

1st National Government of the United Kingdom
August–October 1931
Ramsay MacDonald
Date formed24 August 1931 (1931-08-24)
Date dissolved27 October 1931 (1931-10-27)
People and organisations
MonarchGeorge V
Prime MinisterRamsay MacDonald
Prime Minister's history1929–1935
Deputy Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin[note 1]
Total no. of members59 appointments
Member parties
Status in legislatureMajority (coalition)
333 / 615 (54%)




Opposition partyLabour Party
Opposition leaders
History
Outgoing election1931 general election
Legislature terms35th UK Parliament
PredecessorSecond MacDonald ministry
SuccessorSecond National Government

The National Government of August–October 1931, also known as the First National Government, was the first of a series of national governments formed during the Great Depression in the United Kingdom. It was formed by Ramsay MacDonald as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the collapse of the previous minority government, led by the Labour Party, known as the Second MacDonald ministry.[1]

As a National Government, it was dominated by members of the Conservative Party, and also included a few from Liberals and National Labour, as well as individuals who belonged to no political party. The breakaway Liberal Nationals supported the National Government after their formation in September 1931 but none received posts in the new administration. Subsequently, two Liberal ministers, Alec Glassey and John Pybus, defected to the Liberal Nationals. It did not contain members of the Labour Party as MacDonald had been expelled from it. The Labour Party led the opposition.[2]

Denounced as a traitor, MacDonald was expelled from the Labour Party, and remained a hated figure within the Labour Party, despite his great services to his party earlier in his life.[3]

Formation

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Ramsay MacDonald had served as Prime Minister since 1929

The outgoing Labour cabinet, which was a minority government, was unable to agree upon proposals to cut public expenditure. Prime Minister MacDonald submitted his resignation to King George V on 24 August 1931.

The new Ministry was formed on the same day, when MacDonald was re-appointed Prime Minister. A smaller-than-usual cabinet was appointed on 25 August 1931. The King persuaded MacDonald that it was his duty to form a new government to address the financial crisis. The original idea was that the National Government would be free to draw upon the talents of members of all parties, so that it would represent the nation as a whole rather than being a coalition of parties like those which had existed between 1915 and 1922. However, as the main body of the Labour Party refused to co-operate, the government comprised members from MacDonald's small group of National Labour supporters, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Party.

The Liberal Party was split into three factions. The mainstream party led by Sir Herbert Samuel, who had been the Deputy Leader of the party before the formation of the National Government, continued to support free trade. The Liberal National group led by Sir John Simon had accepted the Conservative policy of protectionism. These two Liberal factions were supporters of the National Ministry. The third group led by David Lloyd George (later to be called the Independent Liberals) had initially supported the creation of the National Government with two of them (Gwilym Lloyd George and Goronwy Owen) taking office. David Lloyd George had been expected to join the government after recovering from surgery following an operation on his prostate as he was still the official leader of the Liberal party. However, he refused to support the calling of a general election, and persuaded his supporters to leave the government and go into opposition.

General election

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MacDonald's National Government had not originally been intended to fight a general election, but under Conservative pressure one was soon called. The Samuelite Liberal Party was opposed to a general election but found it could not prevent one. Parliament was dissolved on 8 October 1931.

The 1931 general election took place on 27 October 1931 and led to a landslide victory for candidates supporting the National Government. MacDonald reconstructed his government on 5 November 1931, establishing the 1931–35 National Government.

Cabinet

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The main roles:[4]

August 1931 – November 1931

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  •   Ramsay MacDonald – Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
  •   Lord Sankey – Lord Chancellor
  •   Stanley Baldwin – Lord President
  •   Philip Snowden – Chancellor of the Exchequer
  •   Sir Herbert Samuel – Home Secretary
  •   Lord Reading – Foreign Secretary and Leader of the House of Lords
  •   Sir Samuel Hoare – Secretary for India
  •   J.H. Thomas – Dominions Secretary and Colonial Secretary
  •   Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister – President of the Board of Trade
  •   Neville Chamberlain – Minister of Health

Key

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Members of the Ministry

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The First National Government was composed of members of the following parties:

Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.

Office Name Party Dates
Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald National Labour 24 August 1931 – 5 November 1931
Lord Chancellor Lord Sankey National Labour 25 August 1931
Lord President of the Council Stanley Baldwin Conservative 25 August 1931
Lord Privy Seal Earl Peel Conservative 3 September 1931
Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Snowden National Labour 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury Sir Bolton Eyres-Monsell Conservative 3 September 1931
Financial Secretary to the Treasury Walter Elliot Conservative 3 September 1931
Lords of the Treasury David Margesson Conservative 26 August 1931 – 10 November 1931
Sir Frederick Penny Conservative 3 September 1931 – 12 November 1931
Alec Glassey Liberal [note 2] 14 September 1931 – 12 November 1931
Marquess of Titchfield Conservative 3 September 1931 – 12 November 1931
Euan Wallace Conservative 3 September 1931 – 12 November 1931
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Marquess of Reading Liberal 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden Conservative 3 September 1931
Secretary of State for the Home Department Sir Herbert Samuel Liberal 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department Oliver Stanley Conservative 3 September 1931
First Lord of the Admiralty Sir Austen Chamberlain Conservative 25 August 1931
Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty Earl Stanhope Conservative 3 September 1931
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Sir John Gilmour Conservative 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries vacant
Secretary of State for Air Lord Amulree National Labour 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for Air Sir Philip Sassoon Conservative 3 September 1931
Secretary of State for the Colonies James Henry Thomas National Labour 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies Sir Robert William Hamilton Liberal 3 September 1931
Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs James Henry Thomas National Labour 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Malcolm MacDonald National Labour 3 September 1931
President of the Board of Education Sir Donald Maclean Liberal 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education Sir Kingsley Wood Conservative 3 September 1931
Minister of Health Neville Chamberlain Conservative 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health Ernest Simon Liberal 22 September 1931
Secretary of State for India Sir Samuel Hoare Conservative 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for India vacant
Minister of Labour Sir Henry Betterton Conservative 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour Milner Gray Liberal 3 September 1931
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Marquess of Lothian Liberal 25 August 1931
Paymaster General Sir Tudor Walters Liberal 4 September 1931
Minister for Pensions George Tryon Conservative 3 September 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions vacant
Postmaster-General William Ormsby-Gore Conservative 3 September 1931
Assistant Postmaster-General Graham White Liberal 3 September 1931
Secretary of State for Scotland Sir Archibald Sinclair Liberal 25 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Noel Skelton Conservative 3 September 1931
President of the Board of Trade Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister Conservative 25 August 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade Gwilym Lloyd George Liberal 3 September 1931
Secretary for Overseas Trade Sir Edward Young Conservative 3 September 1931
Secretary for Mines Isaac Foot Liberal 3 September 1931
Minister of Transport John Pybus Liberal [note 3] 3 September 1931
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport George Gillett National Labour 4 September 1931
Secretary of State for War Marquess of Crewe Liberal 26 August 1931
Under-Secretary of State for War vacant
Financial Secretary to the War Office Alfred Duff Cooper Conservative 3 September 1931
First Commissioner of Works Marquess of Londonderry Conservative 25 August 1931
Attorney General Sir William Jowitt National Labour 3 September 1931
Solicitor General Sir Thomas Inskip Conservative 3 September 1931
Lord Advocate Craigie Mason Aitchison National Labour 3 September 1931
Solicitor General for Scotland John Charles Watson National Labour 4 September 1931
Treasurer of the Household Sir George Hennessy, Bt Conservative 3 September 1931
Comptroller of the Household Goronwy Owen Liberal 14 September 1931
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household Sir Frederick Charles Thomson Conservative 3 September 1931

Notes

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  1. ^ According to Eccleshall & Walker (2002:273) and Stanton (2000:26), Baldwin was the effective deputy prime minister in the Conservative-dominated Cabinet. He served as Lord President of the Council.
  2. ^ Glassey later joined the Liberal National Party.
  3. ^ Pybus later joined the Liberal National Party.

Footnotes

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  1. ^ Nick Smart, The national government, 1931–40 (Bloomsbury, 1999.)
  2. ^ Charles L. Mowat, "The Fall of the Labour Government in Great Britain, August, 1931." The Huntington Library Quarterly (1944) 7#4: 353–386. online
  3. ^ C.L. Mowat, "Ramsay MacDonald and the Labour party." in Essays in Labour History 1886–1923 (Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1971) pp.129–151.
  4. ^ See M. Epstein, ed. The Annual Register 1931 (1932) pp. xi to xv; online

References

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  • Bassett, Reginald (1986). 1931 Political Crisis (2nd ed.). Aldershot, UK: Macmillan. ISBN 0-566-05138-9.
  • Cawood, Ian (2013). "Liberal-Conservative Coalitions – 'a Farce and a Fraud'?" History & Policy.
  • Eccleshall; Walker, Robert, eds. (June 2002). Biographical Dictionary of British Prime Ministers. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-66231-9.
  • Epstein, M., ed. (1932). The Annual Register 1931. pp. 62–116. For very detailed history.
  • Howell, David (2002). MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1931. Oxford U.P. ISBN 0-19-820304-7.
  • Hyde, H. Montgomery (1973). Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister.
  • Mowat, Charles L. (August 1944). "The Fall of the Labour Government in Great Britain, August, 1931". Huntington Library Quarterly 7#4, pp. 353–386. JSTOR 3815737.
  • Mowat, Charles Loch (1955). Britain Between the Wars: 1918–1945. pp. 413–79.
  • Raymond, John, ed. (1960). The Baldwin Age. Essays by scholars. 252 pp.
  • Smart, Nick (1999). The National Government, 1931–40. Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-69131-8.
  • Stanton, Philip (2000). Britain 1905–1951. Nelson Thornes. ISBN 978-0-7487-4517-3.
  • Taylor, A. J. P. (1965). English History 1914–1945. pp. 321–88.
  • Thorpe, Andrew (1992). Britain in the 1930s. The Deceptive Decade. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-17411-7.
  • Williamson, Philip (1992). National Crisis and National Government: British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926–1932. Cambridge UP. ISBN 0-521-36137-0.
Preceded by Government of the United Kingdom
1931–1935
Succeeded by