On This Day

20 July 1911

Prime Minister H.H. Asquith makes it known to Conservative leaders Lansdowne and Balfour that he has obtained the King’s agreement to create enough Liberal peers to pass the Parliament Bill through the Lords. In the wake of the constitutional crisis that followed the 1909 People’s Budget and the refusal of the House of Lords to abide by convention and pass a money bill, the Liberal dominated House of Commons sought to formalise the primacy of the elected chamber over the unelected and Tory dominated House of Lords. Despite wins by the Liberal Party and their allies in the two general elections of 1910, the Lords still opposed reform but the King’s agreement to create enough Liberal peers to overcome the Conservative majority ensured the Bill’s passage.