ABSTRACT
The Liberals lost a good deal of ground, but with the aid of Labour and the Irish there was still an adequate majority to carry the controversial budget through the new House of Commons, and this time the Lords let it through. The role of the Labour Party in that debate throws some interesting sidelights on how Labour viewed its own position at the time, and on its attitude to a number of issues other than the one immediately involved. Labour often seemed to anticipate what was to be the Liberal government’s next move and in the matter of Lloyd George’s 1909 budget they were particularly skilful. The Labour Party resolved to participate actively in the pro-budget campaign. The Labour Party, however, had another great interest, which had come to a head while the election campaign was actually in progress. In the concluding phases of the constitutional crisis, co-operation between Liberal and Labour was close.
