Editing Liberal Party (UK) (section)

==== Ireland and Home Rule ====
{{Main|Irish Home Rule movement}}
Among the consequences of the [[Third Reform Act]] (1884) was the giving of the vote to many [[Irish Catholics]]. In the [[1885 United Kingdom general election|1885 general election]] the [[Irish Parliamentary Party]] held the balance of power in the House of Commons and demanded [[Irish Home Rule]] as the price of support for a continued Gladstone ministry. Gladstone personally supported Home Rule, but a strong [[Liberal Unionist]] faction led by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], along with the last of the Whigs, Hartington, opposed it. The Irish Home Rule bill proposed to offer all owners of Irish land a chance to sell to the state at a price equal to 20 years' purchase of the rents and allowing tenants to purchase the land. [[Irish nationalist]] reaction was mixed, Unionist opinion was hostile, and the election addresses during the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] revealed English radicals to be against the bill also. Among the Liberal rank and file, several Gladstonian candidates disowned the bill, reflecting fears at the constituency level that the interests of the working people were being sacrificed to finance a costly rescue operation for the landed élite.<ref>{{Cite journal |jstor = 2639536|title = The Liberal Party and Gladstone's Land Purchase Bill of 1886|journal = The Historical Journal|volume = 32|issue = 3|pages = 627–641|last1 = Goodlad|first1 = Graham D.|year = 1989|doi = 10.1017/S0018246X00012450| s2cid=154679807 }}</ref> Further, Home Rule had not been promised in the Liberals' election manifesto, and so the impression was given that Gladstone was buying Irish support in a rather desperate manner to hold on to power.

The result was a catastrophic split in the Liberal Party, and heavy defeat in the [[1886 United Kingdom general election|1886 election]] at the hands of [[Lord Salisbury]], who was supported by the breakaway [[Liberal Unionist Party]]. There was a final weak Gladstone ministry in 1892, but it also was dependent on Irish support and failed to get Irish Home Rule through the House of Lords.