What Led to the Fall of Britain’s Greatest Ever Prime Minister?

 by Mahir Asef

Lloyd George and Churchill

Lloyd George resigned in 1922 following the Carlton Club meeting, the coalition was reliant on the 335 Conservative MPs and not the 133 Liberal MPs. The loss of Conservative support made his position as prime minister untenable and it would lead to his fall from power, the Chanak Crisis was seen as the last straw by many Conservatives but in reality the coalition's reputation had been in decline due to actions taken by Lloyd George. The honours scandal and the Anglo-Irish treaty had left Lloyd George dangling from the cliff edge while the Chanak crisis pushed him over the cliff edge and this all together led to his fall from power. This honours scandal and Anglo-Irish treaty were much more important in his fall from power and had Chanak been before these incidents happened, not as much would’ve been thought of it.

The honours scandal had the largest impact on Lloyd George’s fall from grace as it exposed the corruption in British politics to the public but more importantly it led to many Conservatives withdrawing their support for Lloyd George as the selling of honours would lead to social mobility which was hated by Tories. 90 peerages and 20000 OBEs were sold and the price for a knighthood was between £10000 and £12000. The price for a baronetcy was between £35000 and £40000. Lloyd George defended these actions as titles had been wolf throughout British history but it was not the money itself that the Conservatives were disgusted by, they were disgusted by the changes in social hierarchy that it would cause. Furthermore many Conservatives felt that the policy failures and corruption caused by Lloyd George was beginning to taint the Conservative party’s image. This led to a loss of support and the Chanak crisis would highlight the massive loss of support Lloyd a George had suffered. Overall the honours scandal was the most important factor in Lloyd George’s fall from power as it was at this point many Conservatives withdrew their support for Lloyd George, and it was thus support that Lloyd George was reliant on in the coalition. It was more important than Chanak as Chanak was merely the excuse Conservatives were looking for to abandon Lloyd George due to the honours scandal and Angl-Irish treaty.

Despite Lloyd George being the driving force behind the Anglo-Irish treaty, many Conservatives had become sick of the problems posed by Ireland and the long, drawn out way in which it came about meant the coalition was now viewed as an old and tiresome government. Furthermore as the Conservatives were against Irish independence this deal meant that a permanent coalition had become impossible. For many Conservative party members it was at this point that they realised that Lloyd George may need to go, he had negotiated a deal that the Conservative party could not agree with as it went against their very name and he had also connected straight with the Irish leaders and ignored the Conservative party leaders. Furthermore the creation of the Black and Tans by Lloyd George was extremely controversial and blackened the name of the Conservative party even more, even though these actions were undertaken by Lloyd George. Overall the Anglo-Irish treaty proved to many Conservatives that Lloyd George was hurting the Conservative party’s reputation and in turn the public was beginning to lose faith in the coalition as it seemed to fail at everything it did. While he lost some support due to this, the loss of support was not massive, it was certainly not as important as the honours scandal which proved corruption which went against the Conservative values (social hierarchy). Despite it not being more important than the honours scandal and it was more important than Chanak as it was another abandoning of Conservative values while Chanak was not. 

The Chanak crisis was the incident that would eventually push Lloyd George off the cliff and out of power, Lloyd George sent British troops to Chanak only three years after 750,000 had died in World War One. It was seen as an unnecessary and irresponsible response from Lloyd George. It was also very unpopular with the general public as so many men had been lost during world war one. However, while Chanak was important in Lloyd George’s fall from power, it was not the most important factor. At this point many Conservatives were looking for any excuse to get rid of Lloyd George as the honours scandal and the Anglo-Irish treaty, had Chanak been earlier it would have not been so controversial but as it happened after other scandals it would lead to Lloyd George’s fall from power. Overall we can conclude that the Chanak crisis did not entirely  cause Lloyd George’s fall from power, but it was the final straw.