The party had support from disenchanted Rhodesian settlers including "railway men, civil servants, artisans without a job and farmers in economic distress."
Its initial program proposed the creation of a central bank to regulate the colony's currency and credit and other measures to provide economic support for white workers and farmers facing competition from low paid African workers and manufacturers facing competition from cheaper South African imports.
However, the party failed to implement its promise of establishing a central bank or regulating the monetary system.
The course of government led eventually to a confrontration in August 1934 with the left-wing of the party over reform to the Rhodesian railways.
However, the Acting Governor refused a dissolution on the grounds that the Assembly had many years left, and the government had not been defeated.