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- Britain was in the midst of the War of American Independence and there was rising criticism of the way the war was being conducted.
- Some MPs attacked the King for using patronage rather than reflecting the people's wishes.
- 1780, motion against total power of the crown.
- 1784, proposal to disenfranchise rotten boroughs not passed.
- Once the American war was over and taxes had been cut, demand for reform declined.
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- Late 1820s, a campaign in Ireland called for Catholics to be given full political rights
- Act of Catholic Emancipation passed, allowing them to become MPs or hold public office (passed by Tory Gov)
- Tories regarded it as a betrayal of their party, many never forgiving the Duke of Wellington & Robert Peel.
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- Death of King George IV meant a general election.
- Wellington completely against reform.
- Whigs pushing for reform, Tories divided and demoralised whilst Whigs had the support of the new King.
- Some Tories began joining the Whigs, Wellington resigns and Earl Grey formed new Government.
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- Whigs proposed 3 bills that would take seats from rotten boroughs and give them to new industrial towns.
- The Lords voted against the first 2, and amended the third.
- Whigs told the King if the bill was not passed unamended, they would resign, they did.
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- Wellington recognised that reform had to happen to appease the widespread agitation.
- Membership of Thomas Attwood's BPU swelled, causing the Government to consider Civil War.
- 'Go for Gold' was a rush of gold withdrawals, aiming to make the economy crash.
- Wellington considering violent oppression.
- Wellington admits he cannot form a Government and the King recalled the Whigs, giving them a majority to pass the Bill.
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- 56 rotten boroughs lost both their MPs.
- 30 lost 1 MP.
- 22 new boroughs with 2 MPs created, 14 of which in Northern industrial towns.
- 64 new county seats created.
- In boroughs, adult males owning property worth £10 a year could vote.
- King could no longer rely on patronage, asked Peel to form a Government & failed in 1835.
- House of Commons had influence over House of Lords.
- Not actually that great, just political opportunism.
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Robert Peel, leader of the Tories wrote an open letter to his constituents. It targeted the recently enfranchised middle classes and said the Tories had moved on and were no longer the 'backwards' party they were before. Around this time, the name 'conservative' began to be used to describe the party, showing almost a new image for the party.
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Someone standing for election no longer had to own property, however, salaries for MPs still not available so without a private income it was impossible to be an MP.
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- In 1846, Peel repealed the Corn Laws, very unpopular within his own party.
- 100MPs stayed loyal to him and became known as 'peelites' seperate to the main parties.
- 1848-1868 there were 9 different Governments, most of them co-alition.
- Eventually, remaining Peelites moved towards the Whigs, forming an anti-conservative alliance and essentially founded the Liberal Party.
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- PM Palmerstone died in 1865, he was anti-reform so his replacement finally had a chance to act.
- Gladstone introduced a bill in 1866 that would increase electorate by half a million, liberal old Whigs didn't support it.
- Derby and Disraeli divided the liberals and took control, pushing their own more radical Act.
- Conservatives voted the bill through, acknowledged it would allow them to keep power.
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- In the next election, the new voters sided against the Tories, despite Disraeli fighting for the bill.
- 1868 election lost 33 seats.
- Hodgkinson's amendment added 400,000 to the electorate.
- Still over-representation of the Southwest, had 45 MPs in comparison to Northeast with had 32 MPs (with triple the population).
- 1/3 of men could vote.
- Party clubs created, Tory Union of clubs had 761 local associations.
- National Liberal Foundation, 1877
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Many small boroughs still influenced by local landowners. Open Voting had led to bribery and intimidation of voters, secret voting would fix that problem. Led to less rowdy, violent elections but bribery did not go away. Some voters, amusingly, took bribes from both candidates and voted how they pleased. -
- Restricted each candidate to an 'election agent' who was responsible for reporting election expenses.
- Specified maximum expenditure allowed for constituencies.
- Prescribed penalties, including imprisonment, for corruption.
- Worked effectively and parties had to rely on ideologically committed volunteers to sell their candidates.
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- No heated debate, cross-party support.
- 2 pieces of legislation: one to extend the franchise, the other to redistribute seats.
- Counties paying £10 in rent could vote now (as supposed to only boroughs) adding 2.5mil to the vote.
- Plural voting occurred (owned businesses in different places)
- 7% of population had more than one vote
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- Boroughs with populations of less than 15,000 lost their seats.
- Two member boroughs with less than 50,000 lost one of their seats.
- 150 seats redistributed to counties like Lancashire and Yorkshire.
- Reflected the huge growth of urban centres and suburbs.
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- Emergence of Lib-Lab MPs who were apart of the Lib party but voted independently on trade/working class issues.
- 1892 election, 3 men voted in as independent Labour MPs, the next year the ILP was formed.
- ILP members were mostly trade unionists
- 1900, Labour Rep Committee formed, trade unions joined forging a link between them and the ILP.
- Split voters with Libs, so Lib-Lab pact was born.
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- DLG introduced an increased taxation of the wealthy to pay for the expansion of the Navy and pensions.
- Essentially an attack on the ruling aristocrats. -Lords rejected the budget by a huge majority which ultimately lost them the general election of 1910.
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- The bill was passed after Liberal victory and the budget was put into action.
- Also limited the power of the H/O Lords, who had blocked Liberal policies for their own benefit for many years.
- Delayed for 2 years by the Lords by introducing the King to affairs and requesting an additional election.
- Lords remained unelected with the principle of hereditary succession intact.
- Also introduced salaries for MPs, allowing working men to stand for election.
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- Extension of the franchise to all men and most women was result of patriotic consensus, not a power struggle.
- Women under 30 did not get the vote, plural voting significantly decreased but still existed.
- 5 million men, 8 million women enfranchised.
- Labour's seats went from 42 to 60, split of libs aided them.
- Monarch could advise, but no longer did that advice have to be followed.
- Seen when Queen Victoria was overruled in 1880.