Why Asquith Was Replaced as British Prime Minister by Lloyd George
by Herbert Henry Asquith had become Britain’s Prime Minister in 1908 after the death of Henry Campbell Bannerman and was eventually replaced by David Lloyd George. Asquith had previously been the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and had started the process of increasing welfare provision. Asquith was an effective political campaigner as well as a capable administrator. e was not the type of man easily panicked although he seemed to lack the dynamism of Lloyd George or Winston Churchill. Of course he had also been help to promote both men before the First World War started.
As Prime Minister Asquith worked closely with his successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George to push through the Liberal social reform policies. The People’s Budget of 1909 had shown the government’s reforming credentials yet forced two general elections during 1910 (James, 2003 p. 88). Asquith had not had an easy time as Prime Minister yet had previously maintained the loyalty of the Liberal Party through the various problems faced before his replacement by Lloyd George. The Liberal government had been through enough traumas before the First World War. Disruption was caused through the issues of reducing the power of the House of Lords, dealing with industrial unrest, and votes for women, although the war itself put those issues and the more controversial moves towards Irish home rule on hold for the duration (Schama, 2002 p. 433).
Although David Lloyd George was known to be ambitious, he had not from the outset of the First World War planned to oust Asquith and become Prime Minister himself. At the start of the conflict Asquith and Lloyd George had been united as to Britain’s war aims and that Asquith was the best available Prime Minister. Neither man for instance had thought about making peace with Germany, instead waiting for the outcome of the Somme offensive in 1916 (Stevenson, 2004 p. 148). In the source Stevenson argues that Lloyd George wished to become Prime Minister to help the nation win the war, to add a sense of urgency in the solving of political, military, and economic obstacles that were preventing British victory. Lloyd George’s ambitions are played down whilst the stubbornness of Asquith in refusing to step down is stressed. Asquith was assumed to be selfishly holding on to power to the detriment of the Liberal party’s future and British national interests (Taylor, p. 128).
If the government had remained a wholly Liberal administration then Asquith’s position may have been successfully assailed earlier. As the administration had contained Conservatives as part of the national government since 1915, Lloyd George as Stevenson pointed out had to convince the Conservatives to back him rather than Asquith. For the Conservatives were initially reluctant to ditch a Prime Minister that had given them a place in government and had removed Winston Churchill from the Admiralty at their bequest (Paterson, 2005 p. 246). Churchill not unnaturally went on to support Lloyd George rather than Asquith once he became Prime Minister and when the Liberal Party split (Schama, 2002 p. 437). Conservative involvement in the government had resulted from the ‘Shells Scandal’ of May 1915 in which the Daily Mail highlighted the limitations of British offensives due to a shortage of munitions. Asquith had also moved Lloyd George from the Exchequer to the post of minister for munitions, which inadvertently allowed the latter much greater chances to influence the conduct of the war and eventually the chance to become Prime Minister (Holmes, 1999 p. 64).
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