The Election of 1864
The election of 1864 saw a significant restructuring amongst the Parliamentary parties. As the Liberals continued to flounder the Tories moved more towards the political centre in an attempt to take advantage of the collapsing Liberal support and compensate for the loss of the support of the far right – which was expected to go to the recently formed British National Union. With all the other parties readjusting to a new political landscape the Labour party remained concerned with one thing – staying in government so that their program of reform could continue unhindered.
The election provided what was perhaps the worst disaster for the old political establishment in its history. Disraeli had led the Tories to disaster in 1858 when his party won just 139 seats, when he lost another 12 to the BNU these mistakes were forgiven due to promises that the losses would be recouped at the polls thanks to the new, more centrist, policies of the Conservatives. The gambit utterly failed – the Tories saw significant losses to BNU candidates and had to survive on winning old Liberal seats. At the end of polling they remained on just 127 seats – the smallest Conservative presence in Parliament in the history of the Republic. But the real disaster befell the two Liberal parties. Viscount Cardwell’s Independent Liberals fell from being the 3rd largest party in Parliament to the 5th – losing some 33 seats in the process and coming to rest on a terribly disappointing 55. However, in some ways the Independent Liberals achieved their electoral goals as the rival Coalition Liberals were so utterly crushed that they were left with just 9 seats in Parliament.
Not only had the Coalition Liberals been destroyed, they also lost their leader. The 72 year old Earl Russell had chosen a seat considered so safe that neither Labour nor the Independent Liberals even bothered placing a candidate up. In a leafy, prosperous and largely rural constituency in the Home Counties Russell was beaten by a BNU candidate who won just under twice as many votes as him.
1864 really was the coming of age election for the British National Union. After all the build up and even the successes in securing 12 seats prior to the election itself Milne’s party knew that this election would either make it or break it. Benefiting from the Tory failure to address the concerns of the anti-socialist population the BNU secured a hefty share of the seats. However it failed, narrowly, to prevent a continuation of the Labour government. More worryingly, it also failed to lure working class seats and voters away from the Labour party. Despite having a clear presence within Labour dominated areas and amongst many poorer members of British society the BNU had failed to penetrate deeply into the politics of workingmen. Aside from two seats in its East London homeland the BNU won its gains in middle class areas and from old Tory voters.
After the election Friedrich Engels, clearly delighted at the failure of the rightwing parties to secure victory, would make the comment that the BNU represented an alliance between the lumpen proletariat and the petite bourgeoisie and had secured a significant degree of support from the ruling class itself which was both attracted by its anti-socialist ideals and the mistaken belief that it represented an alternate ideology for the workers. Whilst often attacked by more right wing writers this analysis would remain the dominant school of thought amongst left wing intellectuals when discussing the BNU’s strong presence.
Finally, the Labour party secured what was an unspectacular victory. In the world of British politics securing a second term in power was no easy thing and the accomplishment must be praised – however it was secured by the thinnest of margins. Despite Labour gaining 14 seats and the IPP gaining 1 seat Labour’s coalition had a significantly reduced majority due to the utter collapse of the Coalition Liberals. With a majority of just 5 seats things seemed much less secure than they had been in the previous government. However, the weakness of their Liberal allies meant that the Labour manifesto for reform was agreed upon without alteration whilst the only major concessions went to the IPP who were promised more powers for the Irish Assembly, as well as a name change from the ‘Irish Assembly’ to the Dáil Éireann – the use of the Irish language being seen as a source of pride for the nationalists.
In the immediate aftermath of the election (before even the continuation of the coalition had been agreed upon) the Coalition Liberals seemed to be left in a pretty stunned state. They had lost both the leader of their party and most of the old leaders. On the day following the election the 9 elected MPs gathered in a small room in central London to decide the future fate of their party. Joseph Cowen, a popular newspaper editor from Newcastle and long a part of the Liberal Left, quickly managed to secure his position as the leader of the small clique. The group drew up a set of plans for the future of their apparently destroyed party: firstly, they would adopt the name Progressive Liberals and would abandon any ideas of uniting with the ‘’Authoritarian Liberals’’, secondly they would support the Labour government and promote Labour’s reforms in the spirit of creating a freer and more equal society as well as ensuring the security of the country from the likes of the BNU, finally the party would seek to do everything it could to ensure the strength of the Labour Right (the moderate socialists) and prevent the Labour Left (the Marxists and other communists) from taking over the party.
Following this election Benjamin Disraeli had led the Conservative Party for some 15 years, 9 of which had been spent in opposition. In more recent years the popularity he had earned himself from his great electoral triumph in 1851 had been slowly undercut by major defeats in 1858 and 1864 as well as the loss of the Right of the party to the BNU. After leading the Tories to a very poor result Disraeli decided to jump before he was pushed and resigned the Conservative Party leadership – allowing his long term rival Lord Derby to rise to become party leader. With promises of a restoration of Tory fortunes and the formation of a broad anti-Labour opposition alongside Cardwell’s Liberals, the Unionists and even the BNU, Derby would have to tread carefully to prevent Disraeli and his supporters from restoring themselves to the party leadership.