This week Neil discusses a former MP called Charles Cripps

CHARLES Alfred Cripps served as MP for Stroud from 1895 to 1900, when he lost the seat.

Cripps’ time coincided with his support of the Unionist cause and, therefore, the Conservative Party but his previous political preference had been for the Liberal Party.

After two further and separate terms as a MP – representing Stretford and then Wycombe – he was made a peer in 1914 by the Liberal Government headed by Asquith. This was not his last political party affiliation because he joined the Labour Party following Ramsey MacDonald’s invitation to join his Government in 1924 as Lord President of the Council, serving jointly as Leader of the House of Lords with Lord Haldane. Cripps was one of the many to serve just one term as MP for Stroud, a list which includes Lord John Russell, twice Prime Minister and with several streets and one pub in Stroud named after him. Sadly, Cripps has rather fewer local marks to his name.

Cripps’ journey through the political parties reflects the tumultuous political times. The fight over home rule for Ireland, not concluded – some might say ‘temporarily’ – until 1922, clearly motivated his decision to stand in Stroud in 1895 but also, on at least one occasion, contributed to his defeat. Political cleavages over taxation and, crucially, the ill-fated Imperial Preference trade plan, resulted in strongly contested general elections and, eventually, the displacement of the Liberals by Labour as one of the two big parties. Once the war broke out in 1914 another set of issues concerned Cripps and, because he felt ‘absolved’ from political parties, he took a strident line against conscription. This resulted in his move to Labour and, ultimately, his work in helping to shape the League of Nations. He served a second term as Lord President from 1929 to 1931 but did not support MacDonald’s formation of the National Government as a political response to the depression so he left the cabinet at that point.

Cripps’ son, Stafford, became a leading member of Churchill’s wartime coalition and Attlee’s reforming postwar Labour Government, and he also served in MacDonald’s 1929-31 Government, thus overlapping with his father.

Cripps, like Russell, operated at a time of massive political change with constitutional affairs, trade and international relations dominating. Today, the same tectonic plates are on the move and it is not yet clear how the resulting political landscape will look when all is said and done.