Editing Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949 (section)

===Background===
[[File:David Lloyd George c1911.jpg|thumb|right|[[David Lloyd George]]]]

The 1911 Act was a reaction to the clash between the [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] government and the House of Lords, culminating in the so-called "[[People's Budget]]" of 1909. In this [[United Kingdom budget|Budget]], the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] [[David Lloyd George]] proposed the introduction of a [[land tax]] based on the ideas of the American [[tax]] reformer [[Henry George]].<ref name="newstatesman">{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/200409200008|title=A revolutionary who won over Victorian liberals |magazine=New Statesman|author=Tristram Hunt|date=20 September 2004|access-date=6 October 2006}}</ref> This new tax would have had a major effect on large landowners, and was opposed by the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] opposition, many of whom were large landowners themselves. The Conservatives believed that money should be raised through the introduction of [[tariff]]s on [[imports]], which they claimed would help British industry. Contrary to British constitutional convention, the Conservatives used their large majority in the Lords to vote down the Budget. The Liberals made reducing the power of the Lords an important issue of the [[January 1910 general election]].<ref name="liberalhistory">{{cite web|url=http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=46&item=history |title=1909 People's Budget |publisher=Liberal Democrat History Group |access-date=6 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060930235610/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/item_single.php?item_id=46&item=history |archive-date=30 September 2006 }}</ref><!--this could be called partisan at a push-->

The Liberals returned in a [[hung parliament]] after the election:<ref name="oup">{{cite web|url=http://www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-829812-9.pdf|title=Government Formation from a Hung Parliament|publisher=Oxford University Press|access-date=8 October 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051102083925/http://www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-829812-9.pdf|archive-date=2 November 2005}}</ref> their call for action against the Lords had energised believers in hereditary principle to vote for the Conservatives, but had failed to generate much interest with the rest of the voting public.{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}} The Liberals formed a [[minority government]] with the support of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] and Irish nationalist MPs. The Lords subsequently accepted the Budget. However, as a result of the dispute over the Budget, the new government introduced resolutions (that would later form the Parliament Bill) to limit the power of the Lords.<ref name="reform">{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldbrief/ldreform.htm|title=Reform and Proposals for Reform Since 1900|publisher=House of Lords|date=19 April 2000|access-date=6 October 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060718215305/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199798/ldbrief/ldreform.htm|archive-date=18 July 2006}}</ref> The Prime Minister, [[H. H. Asquith]], asked King [[Edward VII]] to create sufficient new Liberal [[Peerage|peers]] to pass the Bill if the Lords rejected it. The King said he would not be willing to do so unless Asquith obtained a clear mandate for such sweeping change by winning a second general election.

The Lords voted this 1910 Bill down. Edward VII had died in May 1910, but his son [[George V]] agreed to grant Asquith a second general election in [[December 1910 United Kingdom general election|December 1910]] (this also resulted in a minority government), and at the time he agreed that, if necessary, he would create <!--can't ref the exact figure:250--> hundreds of new Liberal peers to neutralise the Conservative majority in the Lords.<ref name="noten">{{cite web|url=http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page140.asp |title=Herbert Henry Asquith 1908–16 Liberal |publisher=10 Downing Street |access-date=10 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925213950/http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page140.asp |archive-date=25 September 2006 }}</ref> The Conservative Lords then backed down, and on 10 August 1911, the House of Lords passed the Parliament Act by a narrow 131–114 vote,<ref name="reformbackground">{{cite web|url=http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/jt200203/jtselect/jtholref/17/1710.htm |title=Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform First Report – Appendix 1: Historical Background |publisher=The Stationery Office |date=11 December 2002 |access-date=11 October 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930023520/http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/jt200203/jtselect/jtholref/17/1710.htm |archive-date=30 September 2007 }}</ref> with the support of some two dozen Conservative peers and eleven of thirteen [[Lords Spiritual]].

The Parliament Act was intended as a temporary measure. The preamble states:

{{quote|whereas it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation.<ref name="1911text">{{cite web|url=http://www.swarb.co.uk/acts/1911ParliamentAct.shtml|title=Text of Parliament Act 1911|publisher=Lawindexpro|date=3 January 2006 |access-date=6 October 2006}}</ref>}}

One of the reasons for the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] MPs' support for the Parliament Act, and the bitterness of the [[Unionism in Ireland|Unionist]] resistance, was that the loss of the Lords' veto would make possible [[Irish Home Rule]] (i.e. a [[devolved]] legislature).{{Citation needed|date=July 2011}} The previous Liberal government's attempt to initiate Irish Home Rule had been vetoed by the House of Lords in 1893: at the time of his retirement in 1894, [[William Ewart Gladstone]] had not attracted sufficient support from his colleagues for a battle with the House of Lords.<!--refs?--> The Parliament Act resulted in the eventual enactment of the Irish Home Rule [[Government of Ireland Act 1914]]. {{Citation needed|date=July 2011}}

[[File:Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911 - Project Gutenberg eText 19609.jpg|thumb|350px|Passing of the Parliament Bill, 1911, from the drawing by S. Begg]]