Editing H. H. Asquith (section)

===Labour government and the Campbell Case===
Asquith's decision only hastened his party's destruction, the Conservative Austen Chamberlain writing to his colleague [[Samuel Hoare, 1st Viscount Templewood|Sir Samuel Hoare]], "We have got (unexpectedly and by our own blunders and Asquith's greater folly) a second chance. Have we got the wit to take it?"{{sfn|Ramsden|p=183}}

Relations with Labour soon became very tense, with Liberal MPs increasingly angered at having to support a Labour Government which treated them with such open hostility. Many Liberals were also angered at MacDonald's pursuit of a trade agreement with the [[Soviet Union]], although Asquith rather less so.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=502}} The intervention of a Labour candidate at a [[1924 Oxford by-election|by-election in Oxford in June]] handed the seat to the Conservatives.{{sfn|Koss|p=266}}

As Asquith brought MacDonald in so, later in the same year, he had significant responsibility for forcing him out over the [[Campbell Case]] and the Russian Treaty.{{sfn|Marquand|p=373}} The Conservatives proposed a vote of censure against the Government for withdrawing their prosecution for sedition against the ''[[Daily Worker (UK)|Daily Worker]]'', and Asquith moved an amendment calling for a select committee (the same tactic he had employed over the [[Marconi scandal]] and the Maurice Debate).{{sfn|Jenkins|p=502}} Asquith's contribution to the debate showed an increasingly rare return to Parliamentary form. "Almost every one of his delightful sentences filled the Chamber with laughter."{{sfn|Marquand|p=376}}
Asquith's motion was passed by 364–198.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=502}} As in the Maurice Debate, his sense of political tactics was, in Jenkins' view, overcome by his sense of Parliamentary propriety. He could not bring himself to withdraw the amendment, but could not support the government either.{{sfn|Jenkins|p=503}}