#OTD 1941: Birth of Paddy Ashdown. A supporter of the Lib-Lab Pact and the Alliance with the SDP, he was elected the 1st leader of the merged Social and Liberal Democrats in 1988. In 1997, Ashdown led the Lib Dems to their best performance in an election since the 1930s.
#OTD 1994: Happy birthday to Tom Gordon, Liberal Democrat MP for Harrogate & Knaresborough since July 2024. Before becoming an MP, he served as a councillor on Newcastle City Council and later represented his hometown on Wakefield City Council.
#OTD 1903: Herbert Gladstone, Chief Whip of the Liberal Party, receives a letter from his political secretary Jesse Herbert, stressing the importance of an agreement over election strategy between the Liberals and the Labour Representation Committee.
#OTD 1983: Simon Hughes wins the Bermondsey by-election, increasing the Liberal share of the vote by an incredible 50.9%. The Labour campaign began disastrously with its candidate, Peter Tatchell, being denounced in the HoC by the Labour leader Michael Foot.
The 1950 election was the first election to be broadcast on the BBC - presented by Richard Dimbleby with expert commentary from R.B. McCallum and David Butler.
This was offset by three gains: Archie MacDonald in Roxborough and Selkirk and two figures who were to play important roles in the party in the 1950s and 60s - Jo Grimond in Orkney and Shetland and Donald Wade in Huddersfield West.
Two major blows were the defeats of Frank Byers by 97 votes in Dorset North and Wilfred Roberts fighting the new constituency of Penrith and the Border.
Of the Liberals elected in 1945, Tom Horabin had joined Labour, and Gwilym Lloyd George fought as a Liberal National while William Gruffydd retired following the abolition of his University of Wales seat.
However the tactic only produced a marginal increase in the Liberal vote, while 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits - a record which was only exceeded in 2015. Only 9 Liberals were returned.
The party arranged for the cost fielding these extra candidates to be offset by insurance with Lloyds of London against more than 50 candidates losing their deposits.
#OTD 1950: Polling day in the 1950 general election. The Conservatives gain 90 seats but Clement Attlee's Labour Party hangs on with a majority of five. The Liberal Party led for the first time by Clement Davies fielded 475 candidates, the largest number since 1929.🧵
Four of Foot's sons followed him into public life, including Dingle, a Liberal and Labour MP and Michael who led the Labour Party from 1980 to 83.
He briefly held office in the National Government as Minister for Mines but resigned, along with his Liberal colleagues in 1932. Outside parliament Foot served as Vice-President of the Methodist Conference and in 1947 became President of the Liberal Party.
In parliament Foot was actively involved with Indian affairs and his championing of the rights of the poor of the subcontinent earnt Foot the nickname of 'The member for the depressed classes'.
#OTD 1880: Birth in Plymouth of Isaac Foot, Liberal MP for Bodmin 1922-24 and 1929-35. Foot joined the Liberal Party in 1907 and was a long-serving member of Plymouth City Council. In 1945, although no longer a member of the Council, he was unanimously elected Lord Mayor.🧵
Bright paid a price for his opposition to the war, at the following general election in 1857 Bright, along with many of his anti-war colleagues, lost his Manchester seat.
; he takes his victims from the castle of the noble, the mansions of the wealthy and the cottage of the poor and the lowly, and it is on behalf of all these classes that I make this solemn appeal'.
'The angel of death has been abroad throughout the land; you may almost hear the beating of his wings. There is no one as when the first-born were slain of old, to sprinkle with blood the lintel and the two side posts of our doors, that he may spare and pass on...
#OTD 1884: Addressing the House of Commons on the Crimean War, Radical MP John Bright delivers possibly his greatest speech🧵
#OTD 1962: Death of Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett. Liberal MP for Nottingham East 1923-24 and 1929-31. Birkett was a lawyer and a judge and is perhaps best known for his role as an alternate British judge at the Nuremberg Trials.
Sir Menzies Campbell, whose North Fife seat was next door, and the winner of the leadership campaign said the victory had been won because of a 'very good local candidate' who had fought a 'very good campaign'.
The by-election took place during the Lib Dem leadership election which followed the resignation of Charles Kennedy, a difficult time for the party.
Despite poor opinion poll ratings at the start of the campaign, Rennie and his team pulled off the 1st by-election defeat for Labour in Scotland since they lost the Govan seat to the SNP in 1988.
#OTD 2006: Liberal Democrat candidate Willie Rennie wins Dunfermline and West Fife by-election turning a Labour majority of over 11,000 into a Lib Dem majority of 1,800. The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Labour MP, Rachel Squire after a long illness. 🧵
#OTD 1999: Death of Stina Robson, Baroness Robson of Kiddington. She chaired the Women's Liberal Federation and the National Liberal Club. She contested 4 parliamentary elections and was made a life peer in 1974.
She currently serves as a member of the Energy Security & Net Zero Select Committee and sits on the Speaker's Panel of Chairs.
She remained a councillor until she stood down in 2014, serving as cabinet member for the environment when the Lib Dems took control of the council. In parliament Hobhouse has spoken for the party on Justice, Women and Equalities and Energy & Climate Change.
Originally a member of the Conservative Party, she was elected to Rochdale Council in 2004 but fell out with the Conservative Group and, along with her husband – also a Conservative councillor, joined the Liberal Democrats in 2005.
#OTS 1960: Happy birthday to Wera Hobhouse, Liberal Democrat MP for Bath since 2017. Born in Hanover, she moved to the UK in 1990 and, prior to her election, worked as a teacher, radio journalist and artist.🧵
#OTD 1790: Birth of Thomas Spring Rice, 1st Baron Monteagle of Brandon, Whig MP for Limerick 1820-32 and Cambridge 1832-39. He supported the campaign for Catholic Emancipation and was a strong supporter of the abolition of slavery and of state-supported education. He died in February 1866, aged 75.
