In OTL the number of MPs elected to the 615-seat House of Commons in the general election held on 30 May 1929 were as follows:
Labour - 288
Conservative - 260
Liberal - 59
Irish Nationalist - 3
Independents - 5.
Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister of a minority Labour government with Liberal support.
If there were a 3 percent swing from Labour to Conservatives compared with OTL, the result would be as follows:
Conservative - 312
Labour - 235
Liberal - 60
Irish Nationalist - 3
Independents - 5.
Compared to OTL, the Liberals lose to the Tories, but gain from Labour in straight Liberal/Labour contests.
So with a Conservative majority of 9 seats, Stanley Baldwin stays on as Prime Minister. In the election campaign he promised that if the Conservatives won a majority he would keep Austen Chamberlain on as Foreign Secretary, in order to keep/win the support of liberal minded voters. I have read that he would have appointed Winston Churchill as Secretary of State for India, if the Tories had won the 1929 election. Presumably Churchill would have been replaced by Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Here is the Conservative Party election manifesto for the 1929 general election: http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1929/1929-conservative-manifesto.shtml .
With the support of pro Conservative Liberals and independents Baldwin has a working majority of 25-30 seats. But assuming that the Great Depression happens as in OTL, would he try to form a National Government in 1931 with the Liberals and at least part of the Labour Party? If not, Labour would win a general election in 1933 by a landslide, and if MacDonald is still leader of the party he would become Prime Minister.
But by 1935 MacDonald was becoming senile, so he would have to resign as Prime Minister as he did in OTL. Arthur Henderson died on 20 October 1935, but in this scenario he might be out of British politics as Chairman of the Geneva Disarmament Conference as in OTL. So who would become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister? Possibly John Clynes, but I would prefer someone more interesting. It would not be George Lansbury or Clement Attlee.
Labour - 288
Conservative - 260
Liberal - 59
Irish Nationalist - 3
Independents - 5.
Ramsay MacDonald became Prime Minister of a minority Labour government with Liberal support.
If there were a 3 percent swing from Labour to Conservatives compared with OTL, the result would be as follows:
Conservative - 312
Labour - 235
Liberal - 60
Irish Nationalist - 3
Independents - 5.
Compared to OTL, the Liberals lose to the Tories, but gain from Labour in straight Liberal/Labour contests.
So with a Conservative majority of 9 seats, Stanley Baldwin stays on as Prime Minister. In the election campaign he promised that if the Conservatives won a majority he would keep Austen Chamberlain on as Foreign Secretary, in order to keep/win the support of liberal minded voters. I have read that he would have appointed Winston Churchill as Secretary of State for India, if the Tories had won the 1929 election. Presumably Churchill would have been replaced by Neville Chamberlain as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Here is the Conservative Party election manifesto for the 1929 general election: http://www.conservativemanifesto.com/1929/1929-conservative-manifesto.shtml .
With the support of pro Conservative Liberals and independents Baldwin has a working majority of 25-30 seats. But assuming that the Great Depression happens as in OTL, would he try to form a National Government in 1931 with the Liberals and at least part of the Labour Party? If not, Labour would win a general election in 1933 by a landslide, and if MacDonald is still leader of the party he would become Prime Minister.
But by 1935 MacDonald was becoming senile, so he would have to resign as Prime Minister as he did in OTL. Arthur Henderson died on 20 October 1935, but in this scenario he might be out of British politics as Chairman of the Geneva Disarmament Conference as in OTL. So who would become leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister? Possibly John Clynes, but I would prefer someone more interesting. It would not be George Lansbury or Clement Attlee.
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