The National Insurance Act 1911 was one of the most important, complex and controversial pieces of ‘welfare state’ legislation ever. And not just nationally, but also in Somerset, as was graphically demonstrated at the South Somerset parliamentary by-election of 21 November 1911.
The political atmosphere was especially febrile then over the radicalism of the Liberal Government’s programme, such as Lloyd George’s 1909 ‘People’s Budget; the introduction of salaries for MPs, and the passage of the Parliament Act in August 1911, fundamentally altering the power balance between the two Houses of Parliament.
The National Insurance Bill was being strongly attacked by the Conservative opposition as it went through Parliament – piloted by Lloyd George himself, the embodiment of the Liberal policies – as just such an instance of governmental ‘tyranny’. It was a huge, byzantine piece of legislation, with arcane definitions of who was or was not included in the legislative scheme. One group who became a focus for political debate were outworkers – those, usually women, who worked from home rather than in factories – and, in Somerset, this meant glovers, centred around Yeovil and South Somerset.
So when the sitting MP for South Somerset, Sir Edward Strachey, was sent to the Lords as part of a major Government reshuffle in late October, it was inevitable that the by-election campaign, in a relatively marginal seat, would focus on how the Bill dealt with glovers and other outworkers in the constituency.
Outworking, such as gloving, was important to the rural economy, but its economics were precarious, so any additional costs on both employers and employees were important. Outworkers may like the proposed benefits, but fear the direct cost to themselves, and to their employers, who could respond by cutting wages or jobs. A policy that should have been popular in a Liberal seat risked becoming an electoral weapon for the Government’s opponents, especially with the local press being strongly anti-Liberal.
As attacks in Parliament, the media and in the by-election campaign became stronger – including a deputation of West Country gloving employers to Lloyd George in London – the Government made concessions on which outworkers would or would not be included in the Bill. Lloyd George ‘announced’ these via a telegram on 11 November to the Liberal candidate, Henry Vivian. Vivian was well aware of the danger posed by the glovers issue, when he was reported as admitting that “some uneasiness still existed amongst the outworkers.”
The whole issue was debated in Parliament the day before the by-election itself, and Tory MPs made great play of the ‘coincidental’ appearance of Government concessions, a charge which Lloyd George rejected.
The by-election was a triumph for the Tory candidate, Aubrey Herbert (on whom, see the ‘Political Somerset’ article in the September 2016 Leveller), who won with a slim majority. Both candidates, as well as the local pro-Tory media, acknowledged the importance of the gloving issue. The defeated Vivian attacked the “unscrupulous use” his opponents had made of the Bill and its purported impact on the local glovers, and the victorious Herbert said he won in part because of “the great unpopularity of the Insurance Bill and the fear people have that it will throw many out of work” and he claimed that “the electors were disgusted at the actions of Mr Lloyd George in offering at the last minute an election bribe…”
Even through 1912, when Parliament was discussing amendments to the National Insurance Act, dealing with groups such as outworkers, MPs cited the key role of the South Somerset by-election in its tortuous passage. More than a century later, it is still worth remembering how a local industry in rural Somerset, now virtually gone, was, for a brief moment, at the centre of national political stage.
© JB Seatrobe (Barry K Winetrobe & Janet Seaton) 2018. A version of this article was published originally in the Aug 2017 issue of the Somerset Leveller, #28.