Herbert Asquith (1908-1916) - Prime Minister - Parliament

Herbert Asquith was born in 1852 and educated at Oxford, he became a lawyer. After being elected as the MP for East Fife, he spent his first six years in the House of Commons in opposition. Under Gladstone he held the position of Home Secretary until the Marquis of Salisbury came to power. When the Liberals came to power, Campbell-Bannerman appointed Asquith as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

When Campbell-Bannerman resigned, Asquith replaced him as leader and appointed the radical David Lloyd George as his own Chancellor of the Exchequer. During his time as Prime Minister Asquith introduced a multitude of reforms including the Old Age Pensions Act and the People’s Budget.

The House of Lords was extremely unpopular with the public and the Liberal government took great strides in diminishing its powers with the 1911 Parliament Act. After the outbreak of the First World War Asquith did attempt to create a coalition government but his abilities as a war leader began to seriously be questioned. His last days were marked by Lloyd George defecting to the Conservatives in order to help remove him from office.

"There is no more striking illustration of the immobility of British institutions than the House of Commons"

"The office of Prime Minister is what its holder chooses and is able to make of it"

"The War Office kept three sets of figures - one to mislead the public, another to mislead the Cabinet and the third to mislead itself"

"The Army will hear nothing of politics from me, and in return I expect to hear nothing of politics from the Army"