July 1930, Neville Chamberlain of the Conservative Research Office met with Rothermere and Beaverbrook in an attempt to broker a compromise, and the demands of the two media moguls were widely seen as causing the failure of the talks. in a speech, Baldwin exclaimed that "the disgusting one-sided alliance with the lunatics has ended". Many Conservative voters and MPs wanted to replace Baldwin with Chamberlain, who was seen as a rising star within the Tory ranks. Through many urged Chamberlain to challenge Baldwin, he refused despite having excellent chances as he felt that to depose Baldwin at this point would be seen as the "revolting" triumph of Rothermere and Beaverbrook and to win the Conservative leadership at this time would made him the hostage of the two "press barons". Rothermere's reputation as a megalomaniac with erratic tendencies helped to win Baldwin a measure of sympathy despite the widespread belief that he was an incompetent leader with many Conservatives seeing him as "too timid, weak and pacifist". Baldwin was also helped by the fact that Winston Churchill, one of the Conservative "die-hards" opposed to any devolution of power to the Indians, chose not to co-ordinate his campaign to depose him with Rothermere and Beaverbrook. The fear of accepting "press dictation" as it was called at the time with policies for the Conservative Party to be decided by leaders in The Daily Mail and The Daily Express was very strong within the ranks of the Conservative leaders and MPs. Despite a general dislike of Baldwin, the possibility of "press dictation" was disliked even more. In September 1930, the Rothermere newspapers campaigned hard for the United Empire Party candidate in the Bromley by-election, who came close to defeating the Conservative candidate. Through most Conservative leaders were determined not to see Baldwin replaced with a puppet of Rothermere and Beaverbrook, there was a deep dissatisfaction with Baldwin's leadership amongst the Conservative rank-and-file, and by the fall of 1930 a number of local Conservative party associations were on the brink of revolt. In October 1930, Baldwin called another leadership vote, which he won with the support of 462 MPs with 116 MPs voting against him. In a by-election in Islington East in February 1931, the United Empire candidate pushed the Conservative candidate into third place, which led to demands that Baldwin resign as Conservative leader. However, the way that the United Empire party candidate had