On 22 January 1924, Labour formed a government for the first time in its quarter-century existence. Circumstances had conspired to present an opportunity that many in its ranks were loath to take. The result of the December election had been inconclusive. Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin’s Conservatives (then badged as Unionists) were still the largest party, with 258 seats. The Liberals had 158 and Labour 191. Six weeks of speculation and permutation ensued; Baldwin knew he didn’t have the numbers to carry a king’s speech. He could have tried to do a deal with the Liberals but that would have resurrected a coalition rejected by the public at the October 1922 election. As for the Liberals themselves, Herbert Asquith made the fateful decision to stand aside so that Labour could reveal their inadequacy to govern.
“If a Labour government is ever to be tried in this country,” he’d told a gathering on 18 December 1923, “as it will be, sooner or later, it could hardly be tried under safer conditions.”
