Causes and Significance of the constitutional crisis

Causes and Significance of the constitutional crisis

Traditionally any issues regarding taxation were thought to be the responsibility of the House of Commons. The Lords could vote on all laws and if they rejected a bill it could not become law. British constitution depended on conventions rather than rules, it was a convention that the Lords did not reject the annual budget.

The Conservatives had a majority in the House of Lords. They decided to use this toprevent the Liberals from bringing in radical change. The Lords rejected a number of liberal reforms between 1906-8 including measures on education and plural voting. Although they did not reject all Liberal bills, they did enough to bring back HOL reform as a major policy of the Liberals since the 1880s (this had been as a result of the Lords rejecting Irish home rule).

In November 1909, the Lords rejected the budget produced by Chancellor of the exchequer, David Lloyd George. The Liberals needed to pay for extensive social reform and an expensive naval building programme, therefore the budget included some radical measures:

.Death duties were increased

.Incomes over £5000 a year were taxed an additional rate of sixpence

.Income tax was increased for those earning over £2000 a year and those living on unearned income

.Duties on liquor licenses, drink and tobacco went up

.A tax on motor vehicles was introduced

.A new land tax and land valuation was introduced

Given the need for money there was probably no alternative however it was a high risk policy considering the Conservative majority in the Lords. DLG was egged on by his ally Churchill and was supported by…