With the Liberal candidates again divided between the Liberal Nationals and Opposition Liberals in the 1945 general election, Henderson-Stewart sought a reunification, without success.
At the 1950 general election, the Liberal Party nominated David Alexander Freeman a 22-year-old student at St Andrews University as a candidate against Henderson-Stewart,[REF] the first time they put a candidate up against him, and the controversy between them was described as "bitter" [REF].