The Peelites were a breakaway faction of the British Conservative Party, and existed from 1846 to 1859. They were called "Peelites" because they were initially led by Sir Robert Peel, who was the British Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader in 1846.

The Peelites were characterised by commitment to Free Trade and a managerial, almost technocratic, approach to government. Though they sought to maintain the principles of the Conservative Party, Peelites disagreed with the major wing of that party, the Tory landed interest, on issues of trade; in particular, the issue of whether agricultural prices should be artificially kept high by tariffs.

In 1845, facing a serious famine in Ireland, Peel sought to lower food prices by repealing the Corn Laws. He was able to carry the repeal vote in the House of Commons, but only at the price of splitting the Conservative Party; a split which led to the fall of Peel's government in June 1846, and its replacement by a Whig government led by Lord John Russell.

The leading members of the Peelite faction that developed after the 1846 split of the Conservative Party were:

• Sir Robert Peel
• Sir James Graham
• 4th Earl of Aberdeen
• William Gladstone
• Sidney Herbert
• Edward Cardwell
• Lord Lincoln (later 5th Duke of Newcastle)
• Sir John Young

After Peel's death in 1850, the Peelite faction was led by Lord Aberdeen, who became the only Peelite prime minister in 1852 by forming a government in coalition with the Whigs. The government fell in 1855 as a result of the unpopularity of the Crimean War.

After the fall of the Aberdeen government, the Peelite faction slowly disintegrated, with the final blow being the acceptance by several leading Peelites (including Gladstone, Cardwell, and Newcastle) of cabinet posts in the Liberal administration of Lord Palmerston in 1859. Many Peelites fused with the Whigs and Radicals to form the Liberal Party, though some also returned to the Conservatives.

As a result of losing much of the Peelite faction and its sympathizers, the Conservative Party would not be able to form another majority government for a generation, until after the 1874 general election.

References

• Jones, Wilbur Devereux and Arvel B. Erickson. The Peelites 1846-1857. Columbus, OH : Ohio State University, 1972.

See also

• Liberalism in the United Kingdom