Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

===Putting Labour in power===
There was no question of the Liberals supporting a continuation of the Conservative government, not least as it was feared that an alliance of the two "bourgeois" parties would antagonise Labour. Asquith commented that "If a Labour Government is ever to be tried in this country, as it will be sooner or later, it could hardly be tried under safer conditions". Asquith's decision to support a minority Labour Government was seconded by Lloyd George and approved by a party meeting on 18 December.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=500}}

Baldwin's view was similar, as he rejected [[Sir Robert Horne]]'s scheme for a Conservative-Liberal pact. [[Roy Douglas (academic)|Roy Douglas]] called the decision to put in Ramsay MacDonald "the most disastrous single action ever performed by a Liberal towards his party." Other historians such as Trevor Wilson and Koss reject this view, arguing that Asquith had little choice.{{sfn|Koss|pp=264–265}}

Asquith was never in doubt as to the correctness of his approach, although a deluge of correspondence urged him to save the country from Socialism.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=501}} He wrote on 28 December "I have been intreated during these weeks, cajoled, wheedled, almost caressed, tortured, threatened, brow-beaten and all but blackmailed to step in as the saviour of society."{{sfn|Middlemas & Barnes|p=253}}{{sfn|Jenkins|p=500}}

The Liberals thus supported Britain's first ever (minority) [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] Government under [[Ramsay MacDonald]]. The Liberal Party voted for the Labour amendment to the Address, causing Baldwin to resign (Asquith believed that Baldwin could have ignored the vote and carried on attempting to govern without a majority). He thought the new Labour Government "a beggarly array" although he remarked that the Foreign Office staff were glad to see the back of "the Archduke Curzon".{{sfn|Jenkins|p=501}} Asquith believed that MacDonald would soon be discredited both in the eyes of the country and of his own more extreme supporters, and the Liberal revival would continue.{{sfn|Koss|p=265}}