So Few and So Futile, 1935–55

In the 20 years after the General Election of 1935, the Liberal Party showed few if any signs of genuine revival. All the statistics and indices of decline, already established, continued to move in an unfavourable direction. The debilitating haemorrhage of Liberal votes seemed to have no end. Both in Parliament and local government the reduction of Liberal representation continued apace. The parliamentary party of 21, bequeathed by Herbert Samuel to his successor, went down progressively at succeeding General Elections, reaching an all-time low of just five MPs following the loss of the Carmarthen by-election in February 1957. Ironically, the victor in this contest was Lloyd George’s daughter, Megan, newly welcomed, like so many radical Liberals before her, into the ranks of the Labour Party. Five months earlier, a Gallup poll had put the party’s national support at a derisory 1 per cent of the electorate. Municipal elections continued to witness a fall in the overall number of Liberal candidates, and in the percentage of those who were successful at the polls. The proportion of council seats won dropped from 14 per cent in 1931 to just 7.2 per cent in 1938.1