Fourth Party

The Fourth Party was an informal label given to four British MPs, Lord Randolph Churchill, Henry Drummond Wolff, John Gorst and Arthur Balfour, who gained national attention by acting together in the 1880–1885 parliament.

The Fourth Party seized upon the Bradlaugh affair, expressing time and again the outrage felt by many Conservatives for Gladstone allowing an avowed atheist to sit in Parliament.

They had the support of two thirds of the Conservative MPs[1] The Fourth Party also vigorously assaulted Gladstone regarding the Irish Land Bill of 1881.

[2] According to the report in The New York Times, they would "act as skirmishers to the main body, popping out here and there to fire a shot at the Government and being ostensibly rebuked but really supported by the Conservative leaders.

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