On This Day: Backbench Tory MPs vote to end the party’s last coalition with the Liberals

OCTOBER 19, 1922: Disgruntled Conservative MPs voted to end the previous Tory-Liberal coalition government on this day in 1922.

Echoing the gripes of many modern Tories, the backbenchers of 91 years ago believed the association was damaging their party and holding back their own reforms.

But Conservative leader Austen Chamberlain, who served as Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s deputy despite his party winning a House of Commons majority in 1918, argued that strong government benefited Britain.

Following the end of the First World War, the Tories had remained in the formerly Liberal-dominated wartime coalition to combat the threat of a Communist revolt.

They were also worried by the rise of Labour, which got the second biggest share of the vote – but not seats – in 1918, the first election to allow any women to cast a ballot as well as extending the franchise to all working class men.

Yet, by October 1922, the majority of Tory MPs had had enough with Lloyd George and their traditional rivals and voted to go it alone at the Carlton Club in London.

A British Pathé newsreel showed huge crowds outside the Pall Mall establishment following what it aptly described as a “fateful meeting”. It changed history.

Former Tory leader Andrew Bonar Law, who orchestrated the rebellion, once again took the reins of his party and won a majority in the November 15 election.

Lloyd George’s National Liberals lost 75 seats while a rival Liberal faction, led by his predecessor Herbert Asquith gained 26.

Yet between them, both factions had only 115 MPs and, for the first time, were eclipsed by the Labour Party, which had won 142 seats in Westminster.

The Liberals later reunified - but the party, which prior to WWI had governed for a the best part of a century, was reduced to just 13 seats by 1979.

Within two years they had formed a pact with the Social Democratic Party - formed by breakaway Labour MPs – and merged to become the Liberal Democrats in 1988.

The Carlton Club vote ensured that no Liberal would serve in a government for 88 years until the 2010 election resulted in a hung parliament and the current Coalition.

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The meeting also inspired the powerful 1922 Committee, which was actually launched in 1923, to represent Tory backbenchers.

There was a row in 2010 when Prime Minister David Cameron tried to force the committee to allow ministers to stand in elections for the ’22 – as it is known.

The committee compromised by letting ministers attend meetings but not vote – and are usually pilloried by backbenchers who, like in 1922, are angered by liberal policies.

[On This Day: Chamberlain declares ‘peace for our time’]

Meanwhile, the Carlton Club, which has also been open to non MPs since its 1832 launch, has gradually lost influence.

Prior to 2008, it banned women from holding full voting membership.

Until then, the only full female member was Margaret Thatcher, who was given honorary membership when she became Conservative Party leader in 1975.