On This Day
19 December 1906
The House of Lords reject the Liberal Education Bill
The bill, an attempt by the Liberal Party to alter the 1902 ‘Balfour’ Education Act, was rejected by 142 votes to 53. Moving the abandonment of the bill in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman issued a warning to the Lords. ‘It is plainly intolerable…that a second Chamber should, while one party in the State is in power, be its willing servant and when that party has received an unmistakable and emphatic condemnation by the country, the House of Lords should then be able to neutralise, thwart and distort the policy which the electors have approved…But, sir, the resources of the House of Commons are not exhausted, and I say with conviction that a way must be found, a way will be found, by which the will of the people expressed through their elected representatives in this House will be made to prevail.’