The true origin of the 1922 Committee
Sir Gervais Rentoul | Alamy
4 min read
Lord Norton corrects misunderstandings around how the 1922 Committee came into being
In recent years, the 1922 Committee has been in the news, especially when a leadership or policy crisis has engulfed the Conservative Party. Three prime ministers have announced their resignations following a meeting with the chairman of the 1922, Sir Graham Brady. The committee is variously described in the media as “influential” and “powerful”.
However, it was not ever thus and the 1922 Committee is a body shrouded in misunderstanding. Over its history, even its own executive committee has at times been mistaken as to when it came into being. Textbooks have regularly claimed that it was formed in 1922 as a consequence of a meeting of Tory MPs at the Carlton Club in October of that year that brought down the Lloyd George coalition. The problem is that none of this is true. The committee was not formed in 1922. It did not come into existence as a result of the Carlton Club meeting. Its proximity to that event is coincidental, not causal. The reason for its creation is more mundane.
It was founded in 1923 by a small group of Conservative MPs first elected in the general election of November 1922. At that time, there was no induction for new MPs. They turned up at Westminster and were expected to find their own way around.
Over its history, even its own executive committee has at times been mistaken as to when it came into being
One new Member, Gervais Rentoul, a 38-year-old barrister with no background in politics, found it bewildering. He realised he was not the only one and invited some other newly-elected MPs to a meeting. They met, in Committee Room 8, on 18 April 1923, discussed the purposes of forming a body to make sense of what was happening, elected Rentoul as chairman, and adjourned to 23 April. At this second meeting, the principles of the body were agreed and an executive committee was elected.
The group came into being “for the purpose of mutual co-operation and assistance in dealing with political and parliamentary questions, and in order to enable new Members to take a more active interest and part in parliamentary life”. It was, in essence, a self-help group for new MPs. It styled itself the Conservative Private Members (1922) Committee and came to be known popularly as the 1922 Committee.
Although initially confined to MPs first elected in 1922, it soon expanded to elect some older Members (that is, elected before 1922) who expressed an interest in joining, and, following the election of December 1923, MPs of the new intake were invited to join. In December 1925, the decision was taken to open membership to all Conservative Private Members. It thus moved from being a body that, if confined to its original membership, would eventually have withered away to being an inclusive body of all Conservative MPs, other than the party leader and, when in government, ministers.
April 2023 thus marks the centenary of the committee. It has, in good Conservative fashion, evolved, a consequence of historical events. It has become what we see today as a result of three critical events: Gervais Rentoul calling the initial meeting, the formation of a national government in 1940 – the 1922 Committee becoming the authentic voice of the Conservative Party in wartime – and the controversy surrounding the choice of Alec Douglas-Home as prime minister in 1963, leading him to create rules for the election of the party leader. The 1922 became the maker and, as a result of further rule changes, the slayer, of party leaders.
Philip Norton (Lord Norton of Louth) is professor of government at the University of Hull and Conservative peer. His history of the 1922 Committee – The 1922 Committee: Power Behind the Scenes – will be published by Manchester University Press in September
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