Vivian Phillipps - Other Political and Public Appointments

Other Political and Public Appointments

Phillipps served as Chairman of the Liberal Party Organisation from 1925–27 and was one of the secretaries to the Liberal Council These appointments proved difficult for Phillipps because Asquith was out of the House of Commons again after losing Paisley in 1924 and agreed to go to the House of Lords in 1925, playing a diminishing role in the party, eventually resigning as leader in 1926. Lloyd George assumed the leadership. Questions of money and organisation proved onerous. Phillipps chaired a fund raising initiative called the ‘Million Fighting Fund’ but the appeal was a disaster and he was forced to resign from the party’s Administrative Committee. The Liberal Council was set up by Phillipps and a number of other distinguished Liberals with the object of rallying those party members who opposed Lloyd George and his money and to supply sympathetic constituency associations with speakers, literature and candidates. Phillipps never overcame his distrust of Lloyd George and his enmity towards him. When Conservative newspapers began trying to uncover damaging information about the Lloyd George Fund and the sale of honours Phillipps was one of their prime sources.

Less controversially perhaps, Phillipps was a member of the West Kent Unemployment Appeal Tribunal, 1934–40 and the Kent Agricultural Wages Committee, 1935–40. He also served on the Board of Visitors at Maidstone Convict Prison.