28 August 1931

The Liberal Party supports joining the National Government

A meeting of Liberal MPs, peers and candidates unanimously endorses the decision of party leaders to join a national government. The meeting was one of the most harmonious party meetings for some time. The leaders in the two houses, Sir Herbert Samuel and Lord Reading addressed the meeting and resolutions supporting the leadership were moved by Roderick Kedward, MP for Ashford and Leslie Hore-Belisha, MP for Plymouth Devonport. Two key players were not present at the meeting, Lloyd George because of ill health and Sir John Simon, in Scotland for a speaking engagement, but both sent letters of support. So cordial was the meeting that The Times reported the following day, ‘There are signs…that one of the results of the crisis will be to give a new unity to the Liberal Party’.