Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden

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Philip Snowden, 1st Viscount Snowden (July 18, 1864 – May 15, 1937) was a British politician and the first Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Snowden was born in Cowling in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His father had been a weaver and a Chartist, and Snowden joined the Liberal Party and followed his parents in becoming a Methodist and a teetotaller. While researching a speech on the dangers of socialism, Snowden instead became convinced by the ideology, and joined the Independent Labour Party. He became a prominent speaker for the party and wrote a popular Christian socialist pamphlet with Keir Hardie entitled The Christ that is to Be in 1903.

In 1905, Snowden married Ethel Annakin, a campaigner for women's suffrage. Snowden supported his wife's ideals and he became a noted speaker at suffragette meetings and other public meetings. In 1906, he became the Labour Party MP for Blackburn. He also wrote extensively on economics and advised David Lloyd George on the 1909 budget.

During the First World War, Snowden stuck to his pacifist principles offering his support to conscientious objectors. As a consequence of his anti-war sentiments he lost his seat in the 1918 general election. In 1922 he was elected to represent Colne Valley.

Upon Ramsay MacDonald's appointment as Prime Minister in January 1924 he was appointed as the Labour Party's first ever Chancellor of the Exchequer. He reduced some flat-rate taxes, as well as abolishing some tariffs, but did not implement the socialist measures he had previously proposed. He lost his position in November of the same year when the Conservatives were re-elected to government.

Snowden returned to government with Ramsay MacDonald's victory in May 1929 and was again appointed Chancellor. His economic philosophy was one of strict Gladstonian Liberalism rather than socialism, and he was considered by many at the time and since as being the principal opposition to the government following any radical economic policy to tackle the Great Depression as well as blocking proposals to introduce protectionist tariffs. The government eventually collapsed over arguments about a budget deficit amidst refusals by a significant minority of ministers to enact cuts in unemployment benefit.

Snowden retained the position of Chancellor during the National Government of 1931. As a consequence he was expelled from the party, along with MacDonald and Jimmy Thomas. In a BBC radio broadcast on 16 October 1931 he called Labour's policies "Bolshevism run mad" and contrasted them unfavourably with his own "sane and evolutionary Socialism". Snowden decided not to stand for parliament in the election of November 1931.

He was created Viscount Snowden, of Ickornshaw in the West Riding of the County of York, and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1931 to 1932 when he resigned in protest at the enactment of a full scheme of Imperial Preference and protectionist tariffs. He subsequently wrote his Autobiography in which he strongly opposed MacDonald. In the 1935 General Election Snowden supported a radical economic programme proposed by Lloyd George, despite it being a complete repudiation of Snowden's own record. He died on May 15, 1937.

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir William Coddington Sir William Henry Hornby	Member of Parliament for Blackburn 2-seat constituency (with Sir William Henry Hornby, 1906–1910 Sir Thomas Barclay, 1910 Sir Henry Norman) 1906–1918	Succeeded by Percy Thompson Dean Sir Henry Norman
Preceded by Frederick William Mallalieu	Member of Parliament for Colne Valley 1922–1931	Succeeded by Edward Lancelot Mallalieu
Political offices
Preceded by Bruce Glasier	Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1903–1906	Succeeded by Ramsay MacDonald
Preceded by Frederick William Jowett	Chairman of the Independent Labour Party 1917–1920	Succeeded by Richard Collingham Wallhead
Preceded by Neville Chamberlain	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1924	Succeeded by Winston Churchill
Preceded by Winston Churchill	Chancellor of the Exchequer 1929–1931	Succeeded by Neville Chamberlain
Preceded by The Earl Peel	Lord Privy Seal 1931–1932	Succeeded by Stanley Baldwin
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by New Creation	Viscount Snowden	Succeeded by Extinct

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