Philip Snowden (1864 – 1937)

Philip Snowden original David Low caricature portrait artwork

Snowden worked for the government as a clerk until he became crippled by a spinal disease. In about 1893, after partially recovering, he became a lecturer and writer for the Independent Labour Party, and he was national chairman of ILP. In the House of Commons he excelled in debates on social and economic questions. In 1921 he repudiated the ILP because of its increasing militancy. Snowden served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ramsay MacDonald’s first Labour Government. He returned to office in 1929 in MacDonald’s second government and faced a series of difficult government budgets owing to the deepening effects of the Great Depression. In 1931, he established Sir George May’s economy committee, which, by its recommendation that benefits for depression-induced unemployment be decreased, brought about the fall of the Labour ministry that year. Continuing as chancellor of the Exchequer in MacDonald’s coalition National Government, Snowden carried through an emergency budget in September 1931 and secured Britain’s abandonment of the gold standard that same month. After leaving office, he was created a Viscount and made Lord Privy Seal.

Size 22cm x 31cm

Medium Pencil on paper

Publication New Statesman

Published 3 April 1926