BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

Birmingham had been a center for national politics since at
least the 1870's, when Chamberlain's caucus began to assert its
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dominance over the metropolis.
The symbolic importance attributed to
the city was underscored by Gladstone's appearance at the inaugural
meeting of the NLF held in Birmingham in 1877.
His attendance served
the dual purpose of paying lip-service to the claims of democratic
representation while demonstrating his emergence from retirement to
assume the leadership of the Liberal party.14
Conservatives also made a special
point of using Birmingham as
a forum for national politics.
Addressing the inaugural meeting of the
Midland Conservative Club in 1883, Salisbury praised the efforts of
Tories to make organizational
inroads within the borough while
vigorously attacking the policies of the Liberal government.15 Later
that year Birmingham was the site for the Annual Conference of the
National Union.
It was there that Churchill appealed to delegates to
challenge the authority of the party leadership.
Twice Churchill attempted to serve as a representative for the
Central Division in Birmingham as a means of enhancing his position
within the Conservative party.
He nearly succeeded in 1885, losing by
only 773 votes to John Bright, one of the city's most celebrated
members of parliament.
By 1889 his influence had declined to such a
degree that his candidacy was opposed by Salisbury who favored the
Pelling, Social Geography of British Elections, pp. 297, 301.
14 Francis H. Herrick, "The Origins of the National Liberal
Federation," Journal of Modern History (1945), pp. 125-27.
15
The Times, 29 March 1883, p. 6.