the removal of the Lords’ power of veto over legislation. Asquith introduced a Parliament Bill to achieve this aim. By threatening immediate resignation, the Prime Minister forced the new king, George V, to agree to create 500 Liberal peers should the Lords reject the Bill, which they did. Asquith called a second general election, which took place in December 1910 with the same result as before. Under the threat of the 500 new peers, and against the resistance of almost a hundred ‘last ditchers’ among the hereditary peers, the Bill passed the House of Lords by seventeen votes and received the
...more
