Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)

Although Lloyd George had been consulted daily,[1] Acting Liberal Party leader Sir Herbert Samuel had endorsed the government and accepted office as Home Secretary.

[2] On 20 September Lloyd George was well enough to issue a statement which declared that the nation would pull through, and that "a faction fight among ourselves at this juncture would be unpatriotic lunacy".

[4] Leading Liberals, and eventually Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, visited Lloyd George at his home at Churt to try to come to an agreement, but found that he became more confrontational: to MacDonald, Lloyd George said that if an election were held, he would fight as a supporter of free trade and demand a definite statement of the Government's policy on the issue.

Faced with Lloyd George's intractability, the Cabinet decided to call an election anyway; there would be no specific statement on tariffs but the manifesto would appeal for a 'Doctor's mandate' to do whatever was necessary to repair the economy.

[5] When the election was announced, Lloyd George did as he had indicated and issued a semi-official statement through the Press Association which denounced the Liberal ministers who had "commit[ted] themselves to the consideration of a tariff policy" as having engaged in "a gross betrayal alike of the interest of the country and of the party to which they profess allegiance".

Ominously the statement concluded by encouraging all candidates who were elected in support of free trade to "provide... the nucleus of a new progressive party".

[6] Lloyd George still controlled a political fund which he had set up while the party was divided between him and H. H. Asquith, and declined to release it to support Liberal candidates who endorsed the National Government.

Five had sat in the previous parliament, with the addition of journalist and novelist Edgar Wallace making his first (and last) appearance as a parliamentary candidate for any party.

In the 1935 General Election, the two groups fought separately with Lloyd George more interested in promoting a cross party alliance opposed to the National Government.