The Commonwealth Land Party was a

Stoke Stoke is a common place name in the United Kingdom. Stoke may refer to: Places United Kingdom The largest city called Stoke is Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire. See below. Berkshire * Stoke Row, Berkshire Bristol * Stoke Bishop * Sto ...

based

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It was founded in 1919 by J. W. Graham Peace and R. L. Outhwaite as the Commonwealth League, and was initially associated with the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse worki ...

. It campaigned for the redistribution of land and the abolition of all taxation other than

land rent In economics, economic rent is any payment (in the context of a market transaction) to the owner of a factor of production in excess of the cost needed to bring that factor into production. In classical economics, economic rent is any payment m ...

.Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations'' Outhwaite was a former Liberal Member of Parliament who had sat for

Hanley Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. Hanley is the ''de facto'' city centre, having long been th ...

from 1912 to 1918 and a passionate advocate of the single tax policy. He had some success in persuading Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer,

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during ...

to adopt aspects of his views into the Liberal Party Land Campaign. However, land reform took a back seat at the outbreak of World War One. The group renamed itself the "Commonwealth Land Party" in 1923. It had two candidates run in the

1931 general election Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir ...

, Arthur Rowland-Entwhistle at

Burslem Burslem ( ) is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent. ...

and Graham Peace himself at

. Peace died in 1947, after which it was again renamed, as the Common Land Party.

F. W. S. Craig Frederick Walter Scott Craig (10 December 1929 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compilin ...

, ''Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections'', p.16 It was ultimately disbanded in 1954.

Results at the 1931 UK general election

References

Defunct political parties in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1919 Political parties disestablished in 1954 Georgist parties 1919 establishments in the United Kingdom {{UK-party-stub