Introduction to politics

It was to London that Aitken arrived in the spring of 1910, ostensibly to raise capital for the acquisition of a steel company. But it was to politics that he turned. He had met Bonar Law through business; their friendship grew quickly through a mutual belief in tariff reform. To beat such a drum, Aitken needed a parliamentary seat and with the help of Bonar Law and the lesser known politician Edward Goulding, he found candidacy as a Conservative, and then election, in Ashton-under-Lyme, in Manchester.

 

It was a remarkably swift entry to the Commons, and one that did not go unnoticed. 'Who is Mr Aitken?,' enquired the Daily Mail. It was a question that was to be repeated when Aitken, months later, accepted a knighthood in the 1911 Coronation honours. The party coffers had certainly grown since his arrival, if, so far, his reputation had not. His appearances in the Commons were brief and uninspiring, but investigations into his businesses in Canada precluded his return there for the moment. It was not for nothing that Lady Diana Cooper would later address her letters to 'Dear Lord Crooks'.

 

Journalism

Aitken had always harboured an attraction to the world of journalism since he had delivered newspapers as a small boy. He had acquired a magazine in Canada, the Canadian Century, which did little more than limp along; the absence of the proprietor, it can be assumed, was keenly felt.

 

From 1911 he made overtures to buy the Daily Express in London, slowly increasing his stake in the newspaper from that year onwards. By 1916, through a slow process of incrementalism, he owned the paper outright, though he did little to trumpet the fact, and few for the moment knew that he owned the largest shareholding.

 

Asquith’s demise

Victory for Aitken in the contest for control of the paper drew a sad contrast to the struggles of his adopted country on the battlefields of France. Asquith's cabinet by 1916 was riven by the fissures in the wider Liberal party; every day that the war continued his reputation as an ineffective leader grew larger.

 

Opportunities were open. Here, behind the scenes, Aitken manoeuvred relentlessly, first promoting his old friend Bonar Law and then conspiring to bring Lloyd George and Bonar Law together into an anti-Asquith cabal. There was much to-ing and fro-ing from his rooms at the Hyde Park hotel. On 5th December, Asquith resigned; on the 7th, Lloyd George became Prime Minister with Bonar Law at his side.