probably Halifax, he had very similar views on appeasement to Chamberlain and after Czechoslovakia was a proponent of guaranteeing Poland.
Wrong , a member of either house can be PM. Normally in modern times they resign their title and fight a by-election to sit in the Commons. Alec Douglas-Home for example did it in 1963. ( was Earl of Home )Halifax was a member of the House of Lords and thus couldn't become Prime Minister.
Halifax was a member of the House of Lords and thus couldn't become Prime Minister.
Wrong , a member of either house can be PM. Normally in modern times they resign their title and fight a by-election to sit in the Commons. Alec Douglas-Home for example did it in 1963. ( was Earl of Home )
It wasn't convention at this point. There was also a change in the law for Douglas-Home to become PM. Halifax was favourite due to the extraordinary circumstances. Anthony Eden, John Simon or Samuel Hoare would be options. There wouldn't be an outright favourite though.Wrong , a member of either house can be PM. Normally in modern times they resign their title and fight a by-election to sit in the Commons. Alec Douglas-Home for example did it in 1963. ( was Earl of Home )
I thought Hoare as well, but he might be too tarnished by the Hoare-Laval Pact. Simon is a liberal national so might not have the support either...It wasn't convention at this point. There was also a change in the law for Douglas-Home to become PM. Halifax was favourite due to the extraordinary circumstances. Anthony Eden, John Simon or Samuel Hoare would be options. There wouldn't be an outright favourite though.
I don't think he was senior enough. My mind keeps coming back to Anthony Eden, but there are issues around the government policy towards Germany which I feel would create issues.I thought Hoare as well, but he might be too tarnished by the Hoare-Laval Pact. Simon is a liberal national so might not have the support either...
Duff Cooper maybe?
What kind of PM would Eden have been?There's nothing preventing a member of the Lords becoming Prime Minister at all, per se - what prevents it is the optics. By 1963 it was politically unviable for Home to remain in the Lords, though the image of the red benches proved distinctly harder to shake off, which was precisely what gave people some pause at the prospect of making a peer Prime Minister in periods of higher-quality thought processes for the Conservative Party than in 1963.
I don't think it would be Halifax, though, I think it would probably be Eden by default - but given how dominant as the second man in the party Chamberlain had been for many years previously, it's not exactly a clear-cut thing. Hoare was neither popular or trusted amongst the parliamentary party, and he was very devalued after 1935 - as Chamberlain's mate he would be the logical choice, but those would present a very high bar to him becoming PM.