Title: Great Depression in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
Headings: Great Depression in the United Kingdom
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
Contents
Background
Gold standard
Economic crisis and the Labour minority government
National Government
Emergency measures
During the recession
The South and the Midlands
In the North and industrial heartlands
Welfare state during the 1930s
Slow recovery
Rearmament and recovery
Consequences of the Great Depression
Historic evaluation
See also
References
Notes
Further reading
Primary sources
External links

Content: Under pressure from its Liberal allies as well as the Conservative opposition, the Labour government appointed a committee to review the state of public finances. The May Report of July 1931 urged public sector wage cuts and large cuts in public spending (notably in benefit payments ("dole") to the unemployed) to avoid incurring a budget deficit. The sense was that the deficit was dangerous and had to be reduced; the proposal was to meet £24 million by increased taxes on the rich, and £96 million by economies, of which £64 million would come from unemployment relief. This proposal proved deeply unpopular within the Labour Party and among its main supporters, the trade unions, which along with several government ministers refused to support any such measures. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Snowden, insisted that the Report's recommendations be adopted to avoid incurring a budget deficit. In a memorandum in January 1930, one junior government minister, Oswald Mosley, proposed that the government take control of banking and exports, as well as increase pensions to boost purchasing power. When his ideas were turned down, he left Labour to form the New Party, and later the British Union of Fascists . National Government
Main article: National Government (United Kingdom)
The dispute over spending and wage cuts split the Labour government: