28 March 1906

The Trades Unions and Trades Disputes Bill is introduced into the House of Commons

The bill was an attempt to reverse the Taff Vale judgement of 1901, which ruled that Trades Unions were responsible for losses incurred by a company during strikes. The bill, a compromise hammered out in cabinet, met with a poor response and Labour members announced that they would introduce a bill of their own. Although the Labour bill was opposed in a speech by the Attorney General, Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman who had been listening to the debate intervened. ‘I have never been and I do not profess to be now, very intimately acquainted with the technicalities of the question, or with the legal points involved in it. The object then was, and still is, to place the two rival powers of capital and labour on an equality so that the fight between them so far as fight is necessary, should be at least a fair one.’ He then advised Liberal MPs to drop the government bill and vote for the Labour one.