by the end of 1931, both MacDonald and Snowden had admitted defeat: even with Liberal support, the massive difficulty of both repaying debt and supporting the millions unemployed had proved as great as that of fighting and financing the war. MacDonald chose what he considered the lesser of two evils and invited the Conservatives into a government of national unity. Though this act led to his expulsion (and Snowden’s) from the Labour Party, it was popular with the public:
