Question ?Why Did The Conservative Party Oppose Home Rule? To what extent did it achieve its objectives? Response Ulster had become the most prosperous province in Ireland and everything looked positive except for the threat of the Home Rule issue. This essay identifies why the Conservative Party opposed Home Rule and reviews to what extent it achieved its objectives. The Conservative Party had a struggle on their hands. Tariff Reform had split their party, as initially in 1903, they had set up a Tariff Reform League to protect British industry from foreign competition, it claimed high import duties would make increasing taxes unnecessary and the money raised could be channelled into social reforms, however those in opposition indicated this initiative would have adverse effects namely food being more expensive and this in turn, through differing views among conservatives, not only split the party but played a part in a landslide defeat to the Liberals (Jefferies 2011). The Conservatives had lost in three elections, and the Liberal’s initiative of a People’s Budget would harm conservative supporters the most as it would transfer wealth from the rich to the poor through taxes, so this led to the Conservatives using their majority in the House of Lords to block this budget. As a result of this, the Liberals then dissolved parliament and called a general election featuring the term ‘Peers versus People’. Following a 1910 election, Conservatives were reduced to the same number of parliamentarians as their opponents the Liberals, but the Nationalists held the balance of power at Westminster and were in a positive position to achieving their motive of Home Rule which the Liberals had pledged to introduce. Redmond’s Irish Nationalist Party could hold the liberals, who needed the support of his Irish Party, to their promise once the Lord’s veto was removed. O’Leary in Controversial Issues, cited by Jeffries,2011, credits Redmond in using the balance of power in the Commons to persuade the Prime Minister Asquith (who was also the Liberal Leader) to resolve the constitutional crisis surrounding the people’s budget by abolishing the House of Lords’ veto over legislation in the Parliament Act of 1911. This was not only passed, but it also meant the prospect of Home Rule for Ireland was close and in turn led to a constitutional crisis in Britain over the powers of the House of Lords. It also implied Unionists in Ireland could no longer stop Home rule by legal methods. Andrew Bonar Law who was appointed Leader of the Conservative Party in 1911 was on a mission. With the British Constitution being changed, the Conservatives perceiving a corrupt parliamentary bargain between the Liberal government and the Irish nationalists, then therefore strongly resist the outcome of the parliamentary bargain of Irish Home Rule, as cited in (Adelman 2001). Although it could be viewed that Conservative support for Ulster Unionists in defeating the Home rule