Second National ministry

Ramsay MacDonald, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1924, 1929–1931 and 1931–1935.

The First National Ministry existed from 24 August 1931 until the reconstruction of the government, following the general election in October 1931. From 5 November 1931 until the resignation of the Prime Minister on 7 June 1935 the Second National Ministry was in office. This ministry was a "national government" coalition of National Labour, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Party, and the Liberal National Party. Stanley Baldwin formed the Third National Ministry in 1935.

During the course of the Ministry the ministers from the Liberal Party, led by Sir Herbert Samuel, resigned over the adoption of a protectionist policy caused by the government negotiating the Ottawa Accords in 1932. The other Liberal faction in the Ministry, the Liberal National Party, had accepted the Conservative policy of protectionism before the National government had been formed so its ministers continued in office.

Cabinet

November 1931 – May 1935

• Ramsay MacDonald – Prime Minister and Leader of the House of Commons
• Lord Sankey – Lord Chancellor*
• Stanley Baldwin – Lord President**
• Lord Snowden – Lord Privy Seal*
• Neville Chamberlain – Chancellor of the Exchequer**
• Sir Herbert Samuel – Home Secretary***
• Sir John Simon – Foreign Secretary****
• Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister – Colonial Secretary**
• J.H. Thomas – Dominions Secretary*
• Lord Hailsham – Secretary of State for War and Leader of the House of Lords**
• Sir Samuel Hoare – Secretary of State for India**
• Lord Londonderry – Secretary for Air**
• Sir Archibald Sinclair – Secretary of State for Scotland***
• Sir B. Eyres-Monsell – First Lord of the Admiralty**
• Walter Runciman – President of the Board of Trade****
• Sir John Gilmour – Minister of Agriculture**
• Sir Donald Maclean – President of the Board of Education***
• Sir Henry Betterton – Minister of Labour**
• Sir E. Hilton-Young – Minister of Health**
• William Ormsby-Gore – First Commissioner of Works**

Changes

• June 1932 - Lord Irwin** succeeds Sir Donald Maclean (deceased) as President of the Board of Education
• September 1932 – Stanley Baldwin succeeds Lord Snowden as Lord Privy Seal, remaining also Lord President. Sir John Gilmour succeeds Sir Herbert Samuel as Home Secretary. Sir Godfrey Collins**** succeeds Sir Archibald Sinclair as Scottish Secretary. Walter Elliot** succeeds Sir John Gilmour as Minister of Agriculture.
• December 1933 – Stanley Baldwin ceases to be Lord Privy Seal, and his successor in that office is not in the cabinet. He continues as Lord President. Kingsley Wood** enters the cabinet as Postmaster-General
• June 1934 – Oliver Stanley** succeeds Sir H. Betterton as Minister of Labour

Key

• * = Member of National Labour
• ** = Member of the Conservative Party
• *** = Member of the Liberal Party
• **** = Member of the Liberal National Party

List of Ministers

Members of the Cabinet are in bold face.

See also

• UK National Government

References

• Bassett, Reginald. 1931 Political Crisis (2nd ed., Aldershot: Macmillan 1986) ISBN 0-566-05138-9
• Butler, David, and G. Butler, Twentieth Century British Political Facts 1900–2000
• Howell, David. MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922-1931 (Oxford U.P. 2002). ISBN 0-19-820304-7
• Hyde, H. Montgomery. Baldwin: The Unexpected Prime Minister (1973)
• Jenkins, Roy. Baldwin (1987) excerpt and text search
• Mowat, Charles Loch. Britain between the Wars: 1918-1945 (1955) PP 413-79
• Raymond, John, ed. The Baldwin Age (1960), essays by scholars 252 pages; online
• Smart, Nick. The National Government. 1931-40 (Macmillan 1999) ISBN 0-333-69131-8
• Taylor, A.J.P. English History 1914-1945 (1965) pp 321-88
• Thorpe, Andrew. Britain in the 1930s. The Deceptive Decade, (Oxford: Blackwell, 1992). ISBN 0-631-17411-7
• Williamson, Philip. National Crisis and National Government. British Politics, the Economy and the Empire, 1926-1932, (Cambridge UP, 1992). ISBN 0-521-36137-0

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