Liberal Unionist

Liberal Unionists were a political party of late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain. Originally part of the Liberal Party, they broke away under the leadership of Lord Hartington (later the Duke of Devonshire) and Joseph Chamberlain in 1886 in protest at the Home Rule proposals of William Gladstone. In 1895 they formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party. In 1912 the two parties merged, to give the Conservative Party its current full name: the Conservative and Unionist Party.