Editing Stanley Baldwin (section)

==Prime Minister (1923–1924)<span class="anchor" id="First premiership"></span><!-- linked from redirects [[First premiership of Stanley Baldwin]], [[First prime ministership of Stanley Baldwin]] -->==
===Appointment===
{{Further|First Baldwin ministry}}<!-- please do not change this link to [[Conservative government 1922–24]] -->
[[File:Stanley Baldwin 02.jpg|thumb|right|Baldwin, unknown date]]
In May 1923 [[Bonar Law]] was diagnosed with terminal cancer and retired immediately; he died five months later. With many of the party's senior leading figures standing aloof and outside of the government, there were only two candidates to succeed him: [[Lord Curzon]], the [[Foreign Secretary (United Kingdom)|foreign secretary]], and Baldwin. The choice formally fell to King [[George V]] acting on the advice of senior ministers and officials.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

It is not entirely clear what factors proved most crucial, but some Conservative politicians felt that Curzon was unsuitable for the role of prime minister because he was a member of the [[House of Lords]]. Curzon was strong and experienced in international affairs, but his lack of experience in domestic affairs, his personal character quirks and his huge inherited wealth and many directorships at a time when the Conservative Party was seeking to shed its patrician image were all deemed impediments. Much weight at the time was given to the intervention of [[Arthur Balfour]].{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

The King turned to Baldwin to become prime minister. Initially Baldwin was also [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] whilst he sought to recruit the former Liberal Chancellor [[Reginald McKenna]] to join the government. When this failed he appointed [[Neville Chamberlain]] to that position.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

===1923 general election===
The Conservatives now had a clear majority in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]] and could govern for five years before holding a general election, but Baldwin felt bound by Bonar Law's pledge at the previous election that there would be no introduction of tariffs without a further election. Thus Baldwin turned towards a degree of [[protectionism]] which would remain a key party message during his lifetime.<ref name="mc">Maurice Cowling, ''The Impact of Labour. 1920–1924. The Beginnings of Modern British Politics'' (Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 329.</ref> With the country facing growing unemployment in the wake of free trade imports driving down prices and profits, Baldwin decided to call an early general election in [[1923 United Kingdom general election|December 1923]] to seek a mandate to introduce protectionist tariffs which, he hoped, would drive down unemployment and spur an economic recovery.<ref>A. J. P. Taylor, ''English History, 1914–1945'' (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 206.</ref> He expected to unite his party but he divided it, for protectionism proved a divisive issue.<ref>Nick Smart, "Baldwin's Blunder? The General Election of 1923." ''Twentieth Century British History'' 7#1 (1996): 110–139.</ref> The election was inconclusive: the Conservatives had 258 MPs, Labour 191 and the reunited Liberals 159. Whilst the Conservatives retained a plurality in the House of Commons, they had been clearly defeated on the central issue: tariffs.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Self |first=Robert |date=1992 |title=Conservative reunion and the general election of 1923: a reassessment |journal=Twentieth Century British History |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=249–273 |doi=10.1093/tcbh/3.3.249}}</ref> Baldwin remained prime minister until the opening of the new Parliament in January 1924, when his administration was defeated in a vote on its legislative programme set out in the [[State Opening of Parliament|King's Speech]]. He offered his resignation to [[George V]] immediately.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}