TheFourth Party was an informal label given to fourBritish MPs,Lord Randolph Churchill,Henry Drummond Wolff,John Gorst andArthur Balfour, who gained national attention by acting together in the 1880–1885 parliament. They attacked what they saw as the weakness of both theLiberal government and the Conservative opposition. They were all backbench members of theConservative Party. The Fourth Party seized upon theBradlaugh affair, expressing time and again the outrage felt by many Conservatives for Gladstone allowing an avowed atheist to sit in Parliament. They had the support of two thirds of the Conservative MPs[1] The Fourth Party also vigorously assaulted Gladstone regarding the Irish Land Bill of 1881.[2]
According to the report inThe New York Times, they would "act as skirmishers to the main body, popping out here and there to fire a shot at the Government and being ostensibly rebuked but really supported by the Conservative leaders."[3]
The later Conservative Party faction known as theHughligans was "a self-conscious attempt to recreate the 'Fourth Party'", according toRhodri Williams.[4][5]
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