The National Government of 1931–1935 was formed by Ramsay MacDonald following his reappointment as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom by King George V after the general election in October 1931.
As a National Government it contained members of the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, National Labour and the Liberal Nationals, as well as a number of individuals who belonged to no political party. The Liberal Nationals had not held office in MacDonald's previous National Government, though two junior ministers appointed as Liberals had defected to them. Their relationship with the main Liberal Party had been unclear, but following the election the Liberal Nationals officially repudiated the official Liberal Party whip.
During the course of the Ministry, the ministers from the Liberal Party (led by Sir Herbert Samuel) resigned when the government adopted a protectionist policy, which took place when it agreed the Ottawa Accords in 1932. The other Liberal faction in the Ministry, the Liberal Nationals, had accepted the Conservative policy of protectionism before this National Government had been formed, so its ministers continued in office.
In June 1935, MacDonald resigned and was replaced as prime minister by Stanley Baldwin.
Cabinet
November 1931 – May 1935 Ramsay MacDonald – Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons John Sankey, 1st Viscount Sankey – Lord Chancellor Stanley Baldwin – Lord President Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden – Lord Privy Seal Neville Chamberlain – Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Herbert Samuel – Home Secretary Sir John Simon – Foreign Secretary Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister – Colonial Secretary J. H. Thomas – Dominions Secretary Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham – Secretary of State for War and Leader of the House of Lords Sir Samuel Hoare – Secretary of State for India Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry – Secretary for Air Sir Archibald Sinclair – Secretary of State for Scotland Sir Bolton Eyres-Monsell – First Lord of the Admiralty Walter Runciman – President of the Board of Trade Sir John Gilmour – Minister of Agriculture Sir Donald Maclean – President of the Board of Education Henry Betterton – Minister of Labour Hilton Young – Minister of Health William Ormsby-Gore – First Commissioner of Works
Changes June 1932 – Lord Irwin succeeds Donald Maclean (deceased) as President of the Board of Education September 1932 – Stanley Baldwin succeeds Philip Snowden as Lord Privy Seal, remaining also Lord President. John Gilmour succeeds Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary. Sir Godfrey Collins succeeds Sir Archibald Sinclair as Scottish Secretary. Walter Elliot succeeds Gilmour as Minister of Agriculture. December 1933 – Stanley Baldwin ceases to be Lord Privy Seal, and his successor in that office is not in the cabinet. He continues as Lord President. Kingsley Wood enters the cabinet as Postmaster-General June 1934 – Oliver Stanley succeeds Henry Betterton as Minister of Labour
Key = Member of National Labour = Member of the Conservative Party = Member of the Liberal Party = Member of the Liberal National Party
List of ministers Members of the Cabinet are in bold face. Office Name Party Dates Notes Prime Minister,First Lord of the Treasuryand Leader of the House of Commons Ramsay MacDonald National Labour 5 November 1931 – 7 June 1935 Lord Chancellor National Labour November 1931 created Viscount Sankey 30 January 1932 Lord President of the Council Stanley Baldwin Conservative November 1931 Lord Privy Seal Philip Snowden National Labour 5 November 1931 created Viscount Snowden 24 November 1931Stanley Baldwin Conservative 29 September 1932 Anthony Eden Conservative 31 December 1933 Chancellor of the Exchequer Neville Chamberlain Conservative 5 November 1931 Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury David Margesson Conservative 10 November 1931 Financial Secretary to the Treasury Walter Elliot Conservative November 1931 Leslie Hore-Belisha Liberal National 29 September 1932 Duff Cooper Conservative 29 June 1934 Lords of the Treasury Walter Womersley Conservative 12 November 1931 – 7 June 1935 knighted 1934 Victor Warrender Conservative 12 November 1931 – 30 September 1932 Geoffrey Shakespeare Liberal National 12 November 1931 – 30 September 1932 Austin Hudson Conservative 12 November 1931 – 12 April 1935 Lambert Ward Conservative 12 November 1931 – 1 May 1935 George Davies Conservative 11 October 1932 – 7 June 1935 James Blindell Liberal National 30 September 1932 – 7 June 1935 James Stuart Conservative 1 May 1935 – 7 June 1935 Archibald Southby Conservative 23 April 1935 – 7 June 1935 Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading Liberal 24 August 1931 – 5 November 1931 John Simon Liberal National 5 November 1931 Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Anthony Eden Conservative November 1931 James Stanhope Conservative 18 January 1934 Secretary of State for the Home Department Herbert Samuel Liberal November 1931John Gilmour Conservative 28 September 1932 Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department Oliver Stanley Conservative November 1931 Douglas Hacking Conservative 22 February 1933 Harry Crookshank Conservative 29 June 1934 First Lord of the Admiralty Bolton Eyres-Monsell Conservative 5 November 1931 Parliamentary and Financial Secretary to the Admiralty Edward Stanley Conservative 10 November 1931 Civil Lord of the Admiralty Euan Wallace Conservative 10 November 1931 Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries John Gilmour Conservative November 1931 Walter Elliot Conservative 28 September 1932 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries National Labour 10 November 1931 Secretary of State for Air Conservative 5 November 1931 Under-Secretary of State for Air Philip Sassoon Conservative November 1931 Secretary of State for the Colonies Philip Cunliffe-Lister Conservative 5 November 1931 Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies Robert William Hamilton Liberal November 1931 Conservative 29 September 1932 Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Jimmy Thomas National Labour November 1931 Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs Malcolm MacDonald National Labour November 1931 President of the Board of Education Donald Maclean Liberal November 1931 Conservative 15 June 1932 succeeded as 3rd Viscount Halifax 19 January 1934 Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education Herwald Ramsbotham Conservative 10 November 1931 Minister of Health Hilton Young Conservative 5 November 1931 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health Ernest Brown Liberal National 10 November 1931 Geoffrey Shakespeare Liberal National 30 September 1932 Secretary of State for India Samuel Hoare Conservative November 1931 Under-Secretary of State for India Liberal 10 November 1931 Rab Butler Conservative 29 September 1932 Minister of Labour Henry Betterton Conservative November 1931Oliver Stanley Conservative 29 June 1934 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour Robert Hudson Conservative 10 November 1931 Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster J. C. C. Davidson Conservative 10 November 1931 Paymaster General National Labour 23 November 1931 Minister for Pensions George Tryon Conservative November 1931 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions Cuthbert Headlam Conservative 10 November 1931 Office vacant from 29 September 1932 Postmaster-General Kingsley Wood Conservative 10 November 1931 Office in Cabinet from 20 December 1933 Assistant Postmaster-General Graham White Liberal November 1931 Ernest Nathaniel Bennett National Labour 21 October 1932 Secretary of State for Scotland Archie Sinclair Liberal November 1931Godfrey Collins Liberal National 28 September 1932 Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Noel Skelton Conservative November 1931 President of the Board of Trade Walter Runciman Liberal National 5 November 1931 Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade Leslie Hore-Belisha Liberal National 10 November 1931 Leslie Burgin Liberal National 29 September 1932 Secretary for Overseas Trade John Colville Conservative 10 November 1931 Secretary for Mines Isaac Foot Liberal November 1931 Ernest Brown Liberal National 30 September 1932 Minister of Transport James Pybus Liberal National November 1931 Oliver Stanley Conservative 22 February 1933 Leslie Hore-Belisha Liberal National 29 June 1934 Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport Conservative 25 November 1931 Cuthbert Headlam Conservative 29 September 1932 Office vacant 5 July 1934 Secretary of State for Warand Leader of the House of Lords Conservative 5 November 1931 Under-Secretary of State for War Conservative 10 November 1931 and Conservative 24 January 1934 Financial Secretary to the War Office Duff Cooper Conservative November 1931 Douglas Hacking Conservative 29 June 1934 First Commissioner of Works William Ormsby-Gore Conservative 5 November 1931 Attorney General William Jowitt National Labour November 1931 Thomas Inskip Conservative 26 January 1932 Solicitor General Thomas Inskip Conservative November 1931 Boyd Merriman Conservative 26 January 1932 Donald Somervell Conservative 29 September 1933 Lord Advocate Craigie Aitchison National Labour November 1931 Wilfrid Normand Conservative 2 October 1933 Douglas Jamieson Conservative 28 March 1935 Solicitor General for Scotland Wilfrid Normand Conservative 10 November 1931 Douglas Jamieson Conservative 2 October 1933 Thomas Cooper Conservative 15 May 1935 Treasurer of the Household Frederick Thomson Conservative 12 November 1931 George Penny Conservative 1 May 1935 Comptroller of the Household Walter Rea Liberal 12 November 1931 George Penny Conservative 30 September 1932 Victor Warrender Conservative 1 May 1935 Vice-Chamberlain of the Household George Penny Conservative 12 November 1931 Victor Warrender Conservative 30 September 1932 Lambert Ward Conservative 1 May 1935 Captain of the Gentlemen-at-Arms Conservative 12 November 1931 Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard and Conservative 12 November 1931 Lords in Waiting Conservative 12 November 1931 – 24 January 1934 Conservative 12 November 1931 – 7 June 1935 Liberal 12 November 1931 – 28 September 1932 Conservative 24 January 1934 – 7 June 1935 Conservative 24 January 1934 – 7 June 1935
Notes
References
Bassett, Reginald. 1931 Political Crisis (2nd ed., Aldershot: Macmillan 1986) Butler, David, and G. Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000
Hattersley, Roy. Borrowed Time: The Story of Britain Between the Wars (2008) pp 143–72. Howell, David. MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1931 (Oxford U.P. 2002). Hyde, H. Montgomery. Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister (1973) Jenkins, Roy. Baldwin (1987) excerpt and text search Marquand, David. Ramsay MacDonald (1977) Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain between the Wars: 1918–1945 (1955) pp. 413–79 Raymond, John, ed. The Baldwin Age (1960), essays by scholars 252 pages; online Skidelsky, Robert. Politicians and the Slump: the Labour Government of 1929–1931. (1967.) Smart, Nick. The National Government. 1931–40 (Macmillan 1999)
Taylor, A.J.P. English History 1914–1945 (1965) pp 321–88 Thorpe, Andrew. The British general election of 1931 (Oxford UP, 1991). Thorpe, Andrew. Britain in the 1930s. The Deceptive Decade, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992). Williamson, Philip. National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926–1932, (Cambridge UP, 1992).
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