Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

Infobox Politician
name= Philip Snowden


imagesize=200px
birth_date = July 18, 1864
birth_place = Cowling, Yorkshire, England
death_place = Tilford, Surrey, England
death_date = death date and age|1937|05|15|1864|07|18
office = Chancellor of the Exchequer
term_start = 7 June 1929
term_end = 5 November 1931
predecessor = Winston Churchill
successor = Neville Chamberlain
term_start2 = 22 January 1924
term_end2 = 3 November 1924
predecessor2 = Neville Chamberlain
successor2 = Winston Churchill
party = Labour Party

Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (July 18, 1864 – May 15, 1937) was a British politician and the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Early life

Snowden was born in Cowling in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father had been a weaver and a Chartist, and Snowden joined the Liberal Party and followed his parents in becoming a Methodist and a teetotaller. While researching a speech on the dangers of socialism, Snowden instead became convinced by the ideology, and joined the Independent Labour Party. He became a prominent speaker for the party and wrote a popular Christian socialist pamphlet with Keir Hardie entitled "The Christ that is to Be" in 1903.

In 1905, Snowden married Ethel Annakin, a campaigner for women's suffrage. Snowden supported his wife's ideals and he became a noted speaker at suffragette meetings and other public meetings. In 1906, he became the Labour Party MP for Blackburn. He also wrote extensively on economics and advised David Lloyd George on the 1909 budget.

During the First World War, Snowden stuck to his pacifist principles offering his support to conscientious objectors. As a consequence of his anti-war sentiments he lost his seat in the 1918 general election. In 1922 he was elected to represent Colne Valley.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

Upon Ramsay MacDonald's appointment as Prime Minister in January 1924 he was appointed as the Labour Party's first ever Chancellor of the Exchequer. He reduced some flat-rate taxes, as well as abolishing some tariffs, but did not implement the socialist measures he had previously proposed. He lost his position in November of the same year when the Conservatives were re-elected to government.

Snowden returned to government with Ramsay MacDonald's victory in May 1929 and was again appointed Chancellor. His economic philosophy was one of strict Gladstonian Liberalism rather than socialism. His official biographer wrote that "He was raised in an atmosphere which regarded borrowing as an evil and free trade as an essential ingredient of prosperity".

He was considered by many at the time and since as being the principal opposition to the government following any radical economic policy to tackle the Great Depression as well as blocking proposals to introduce protectionist tariffs. The government eventually collapsed over arguments about a budget deficit amidst refusals by a significant minority of ministers to enact cuts in unemployment benefit.

Snowden retained the position of Chancellor during the National Government of 1931. As a consequence he was expelled from the party, along with MacDonald and Jimmy Thomas. In a BBC radio broadcast on 16 October 1931 he called Labour's policies "Bolshevism run mad" and contrasted them unfavourably with his own "sane and evolutionary Socialism". Snowden decided not to stand for parliament in the election of November 1931.

Later life

He was created Viscount Snowden, of Ickornshaw in the West Riding of the County of York, and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1931 to 1932 when he resigned in protest at the enactment of a full scheme of Imperial Preference and protectionist tariffs. He subsequently wrote his "Autobiography" in which he strongly opposed MacDonald. In the 1935 General Election Snowden supported a radical economic programme proposed by Lloyd George, despite it being a complete repudiation of Snowden's own record. He died on May 15, 1937.

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