policy" as having engaged in "a gross betrayal alike of the interest of the country and of the party to which they profess allegiance". Ominously the statement concluded by encouraging all candidates who were elected in support of free trade to "provide... the nucleus of a new progressive party". Lloyd George still controlled a political fund which he had set up while the party was divided between him and H. H. Asquith, and declined to release it to support Liberal candidates who endorsed the National Government. Two Liberal MPs allied to Lloyd George who opposed the calling of an election, his son Gwilym and Frank Owen, resigned from the Government. At the election, six Liberal candidates formally declared their opposition to the National Government. Five had sat in the previous parliament, with the addition of journalist and novelist Edgar Wallace making his first (and last) appearance as a parliamentary candidate for any party. In addition, in Halifax Frank Sykes stood as an unofficial, anti-National Government, Liberal candidate after the local Liberal Association decided not to nominate its own candidate; he lost his deposit with 2,578 votes (4.6%). New Parliament In the new Parliament, the group of Independent Liberal MPs rejected attempts to reunify all the Liberals (including the pro-tariff Liberal National Party) under a single party whip and consistently opposed the National Government. In the House of Commons Lloyd George sat on the opposition (i.e. Labour Party) Front Bench in the corner seat next to the gangway, rather than with the rest of the Independent Liberals. Lloyd George continued to occupy this seat until the end of his Commons career. He was elevated to the House of Lords as Earl Lloyd George of Dwyfor in early 1945 but died before taking his seat in the Upper House. The mainstream Liberal Party meanwhile experienced difficulties with its relations with the National Government, which was dominated by Conservatives who supported tariffs. On 22 January 1932 the Cabinet announced an "agreement to differ", suspending Cabinet collective responsibility so that the four members of the Cabinet who supported free trade (Liberals Herbert Samuel, Donald Maclean and Sir Archibald Sinclair together with Viscount Snowden who was nominally National Labour) should be "at liberty to express their views by speech and vote". When (in September 1932) the Cabinet endorsed the conclusion of the Ottawa Conference, favouring protective tariffs, all Liberal ministers together with Viscount Snowden resigned