Fourth Party

The "Fourth Party" was a label given to a quartet of British MPs, Lord Randolph Churchill, Henry Drummond Wolff, John Gorst and Arthur Balfour, in the 1880-1885 parliament.

They attacked what they saw as the weakness of both the Liberal government and the Conservative opposition. Despite the label, they were all backbench members of the Conservative Party. In the view of "The New York Times", they would "act as skirmishers to the main body, popping out here and there to fire a shot at the Government and being ostensibly rebuked but really supported by the Conservative leaders." [cite news
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9D07E4DC103CEE3ABC4B53DFB166838A699FDE
title=Timely English Topics: Temperance Success and Parliamentary Scenes
date=July 3 1881
publisher=The New York Times
accessdate=2008-03-02]

The later Conservative Party faction known as the Hughligans was "a self-conscious attempt to recreate the 'Fourth Party'", according to Rhodri Williams. [cite book
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=zrdjEV9zY5MC
title=Defending the Empire: The Conservative Party and British Defence Policy 1899-1915
author=Rhodri Williams
year=1991
publisher=Yale University Press
isbn=0300050488]

Further reading

*cite book |title=The Fourth Party |author=Harold Edward Gorst |publisher=Smith, Elder |year=1906 |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=TCtQmFm0tjMC

References