David Lloyd George- Statue

David Lloyd George was a British Liberal politician who started off his political career as the Chancellor of Exchequer during 1908-1915 in which he managed to introduce many welfare reforms. Born on 17th January 1863 Lloyd grew up to become an important political figure for the Liberals. Although he was brought up in Manchester his family moved to Wales and lived in a small town known as Caenarvon where he was honoured to serve as the Liberal MP for 55 years (1890-1945). His liberal values was reflected in his 1909 budget which was known as the 'peoples budget' and despite it being rejected by the House of Lords it led to the Parliament Act of 1911 to be put in use which meant the Lords lost the power to veto the budget.

After 1915 he was appointed Minister of Munitions which was during WW1 and switched to Secretary of State for war in July 1916. In December 1916 due to many political crises the Primeminister at the time, Asquith was replaced with Lloyd. After the war his political career was at its highest despite only relying on the support from Conservatives and those that supported him. He managed to change the leaving age from education to 18, introduced support for the blind and extended a lot of support for workers and the welfare system.

However in 1922 Lloyd was in the forefront of much political scandal including ones involving knights and peerages during the summer and in October faced rebellion from the Conservatives over relations with Turkey also known as the Chanak Crisis. Many disagreed from the Conservative party and factions started to get formed but his fate was sealed with a vote of 187 to 87 for the Conservative party to 'fight its elections as an independent party'. He later resigned. Lloyd remained a controversial figure for the next couple of years as he was considered the reason the party faced a downfall. Though in 1926 he became Liberal leader as Asquith lost his seat in the commons, despite this he became marganilsed by his own party and it stayed that way for the rest of his career. He died on March 26th 1945.

Lloyd's statue situated in Parliament Sqaure