Neville Chamberlain dies in 1937

CaliGuy

Banned
What if, for whatever reason, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain died shortly after taking office in 1937.

Who would have succeeded him? Also, would this make any difference in foreign policy over the next several years?
 
probably Halifax, he had very similar views on appeasement to Chamberlain and after Czechoslovakia was a proponent of guaranteeing Poland. So in truth not a lot of change till 1940. Then its a question of if he resigns and Churchill takes over as OTL or he carries on. Whilst there are many alt novels showing him as PM its debatable as to if he would carry on due to him being very unsure of his ability to be a wartime PM with Churchill in the cabinet.
 
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 )
 

Deleted member 94680

Halifax was a member of the House of Lords and thus couldn't become Prime Minister.

He could be PM, just not speak in the House of Commons. In the scenario where he became PM, a member of the Cabinet as an MP (probably whoever was Chancellor of the Exchequer) would speak at the dispatch box in the Commons. All other PM duties Halifax could carry out as usual.
 
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 )

Douglas-Home was allowed to renounce his title become PM due to the Peerage Act of 1963, after Tony Benn's protests. It's possible that Halifax would have fought to change this, or some sort of emergency arrangement was allowed (as likely would have happened if he'd become PM in 1940) but I can't see it happening in peacetime, especially not just after a major constitutional crisis.
 
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.
 
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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 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?
 
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?
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.

It's a really difficult one.
 
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.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
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.
What kind of PM would Eden have been?
 
For the pedantic. There is no formal post as Prime Minister. It is a convention to call the leader of the majority party in the Commons the 'Prime' Minister. The post is actually the 'First Lord of the Treasury'. Previously the Lord High Treasurer, of the Lords Commissioners of The Treasury. As such, in strict principle, it is a post at Her Majesty's Pleasure i.e. she can give it to anyone she pleases. Obviously today she follows the modern convention of giving it to whoever is most able to field a majority in the House of Commons. There is no legal reason why they could not be outside the Commons or Lords.

However please do not digress into gratuitous ASB exercises of the principle. The only way a non member of parliament could get the job is to be appointed pending a by-election in which they stand, even in 1937.
 
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