TheUnionist Free Food League was a British pressure group formed on 13 July 1903 byConservative andLiberal Unionist politicians who believed infree trade and who wished to campaign againstJoseph Chamberlain's proposals forTariff Reform, which would involve an import tax on food. About 40 Conservative and 20 Liberal Unionist MPs attended the initial meeting. The former UnionistChancellor of the Exchequer,Sir Michael Hicks Beach, became president of the group. He was replaced in October 1903 by the Liberal Unionist party leader, theDuke of Devonshire.^[1]

Members includedGeorge Goschen,Hugh Cecil,Robert Cecil andWinston Churchill. Some, like Churchill, later defected to theLiberal Party. The Free Food League changed its name to the Unionist Free Trade Club in 1905.^[2]

Whereas Chamberlain'sTariff Reform League was a grass-roots organisation which had captured 300 Unionist constituency associations by 1906, the Unionist Free Trade Club was little more than a parliamentary group and so was much less effective.^[3] Unionist Free Traders were also unable to persuade any newspapers to support them, with only the Conservative weekly magazineThe Spectator supported their cause.

In 1906, after theGeneral Election, there were 16 Free Trade Unionists MPs left. Some, like Hugh Cecil, lost their seat due to a split vote with a Tariff Reformer and so both lost out to the Liberal candidate. By the end of 1910, following two more General Elections, the only survivor in the House of Commons was Hugh Cecil (who was returned for one ofOxford University's seats), with just a few adherents left in theHouse of Lords, likeHenry James, 1st Baron James of Hereford.

• History of the Conservative Party (UK)
• Conservative political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom