On This Day

24 July 1911

Prime Minister Herbert Asquith is howled down by Unionist MPs as he attempts to address the House of Commons

Asquith who was attempting to outline the government’s response to the House of Lords amendments to the Parliament Bill stood at the despatch box for 30 minutes vainly attempting to make himself heard before giving up, remarking that he ‘declined to degrade himself further’. Exchanges involving Arthur Balfour and Sir Edward Grey followed but there were further interruptions and the Speaker suspended the sitting on the grounds that ‘a grave state of disorder had arisen’. Winston Churchill reporting afterwards to King George V said, ‘The ugliest feature was the absence of any real passion or spontaneous feeling. It was a squalid, frigid, organised attempt to insult the Prime Minister.’