However, he would take office with a group of men who possessed little or no official experience, who had rarely felt moved to speak in the House of Commons before, and who, as a group, remained hostile to Disraeli on a personal level, his assault on the Corn Laws notwithstanding.

The Peelites, however, refused to serve under Stanley or with Disraeli so long as the question of free trade remained unsettled, and attempts to form a purely protectionist government failed.

Because of the split in the Conservative Party and because of Disraeli's unpopularity, arising from the budget fight of 1852, which is outlined above, no Conservative reconciliation remained possible so long as Disraeli remained leader in the House of Commons.

Although born of Jewish parents, Disraeli was baptised in the Christian faith at the age of twelve, and remained an observant Anglican for the rest of his life.

When Disraeli became an earl in 1876 he automatically lost his seat in the Commons but remained Prime Minister, leading his government from the House of Lords.

Now on the back-benches, Stevas remained loyal to Thatcher whilst criticising Thatcherite economic policies: " He was a One Nation Conservative who looked to Disraeli rather than Milton Friedman ".

Bentinck, then still Conservative leader in the Commons, joined Disraeli in speaking and voting for the bill, although his own speech was a standard one of toleration.

Disraeli had offered to stand aside as leader in the House of Commons in favour of Palmerston, but the latter declined.

Although not the first leader to speak directly to voters – both he and Disraeli had spoken directly to party loyalists before on special occasions – he was the first to canvass an entire constituency delivering his message to anyone who would listen, encouraging his supporters and trying to convert his opponents.

Disraeli became overall Conservative leader during 1868, although, when Prime Minister, he did not attempt to reintroduce protectionism.

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative Party, named Disraeli as his favourite Conservative and some commentators and MPs have suggested that Cameron's ideology contains an element of one nationism.

Before he became leader of the Conservative Party, Disraeli had announced that, as a result of the Reform Act of 1867 which had enfranchised the male working class, the party needed to pursue social reforms if it was to have electoral success.

The Conservative Party's 2010 manifesto contained a section on " One World Conservatism "— a commitment to spend 0. 7 % of national income on well-targeted aid — and David Cameron, the current leader of the party and British Prime Minister, named Disraeli as his favourite Conservative.

Palmerston rejected an offer from Disraeli to become Conservative leader, but he attended the meeting of 6 June 1859 in Willis's Rooms at St James Street where the Liberal Party was formed.

Benjamin Disraeli, British Prime Minister ( 1868 and 1874 – 1880, and Earl of Beaconsfield 1876 ), whose father rented a house at nearby Bradenham, purchased the manor in 1848 with the help of a loan of £ 25, 000 ( equivalent to almost £ 1, 500, 000 today ) from Lord Henry Bentinck and Lord Titchfield, because as leader of the Conservative Party " it was essential to represent a county ," and county members had to be landowners.

In opposition, Hardy occasionally acted as opposition leader in the House of Commons when Disraeli was absent.

In the end Herries declined, and Disraeli gradually came into his own as leader.

The party was then faced with the problem of how to produce a credible leader, who was not Benjamin Disraeli.

In 1851 Granby resigned and the party accepted Disraeli as the sole leader.

His relations with Benjamin Disraeli were strained, with Beresford often taking his cue from Lord Stanley in the Lords instead of the nominal leader in the commons.

After the collapse of Lord Palmerston's first government, the Tory leader Lord Derby again formed a minority government, with Benjamin Disraeli as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

When Disraeli resigned office in 1868 Lowry-Corry declined various offers of public employment in order to be free to continue his services, now given gratuitously, to the Conservative leader ; and when the latter returned to power in 1874, Corry resumed his position as official private secretary to the prime minister.

The group's leader and figurehead, however, was Benjamin Disraeli, who bore the distinction of having neither an aristocratic background nor an Eton or Cambridge education.

However, the Adullamites were not prepared to accept Disraeli as leader and negotiations broke down.

But just as Catholic Emancipation was brought about by a Tory Prime Minister in 1829, or substantial voting reforms brought about by Disraeli and the Conservatives, thus winning support from a crucial minority of those originally opposed to either, the support of a prominent hardline Protestant leader for Catholic Emancipation might have made all the difference to Irish history.

* Benjamin Disraeli 1852 – 1876 ( overall leader from 1868 )

Following the resignation of Lord George Bentinck from the leadership of the protectionists in the House of Commons at the beginning of 1848, Granby ( as he was then known ) became leader on 10 February 1848, as Benjamin Disraeli was unacceptable to Lord Derby, the overall leader of the party, and the majority of the rank and file.

In 1876 Disraeli was raised to the peerage as the Earl of Beaconsfield, capping nearly four decades in the House of Commons.

Though he initially stood for election, unsuccessfully, as a Radical, Disraeli was a Tory by the time he won a seat in the House of Commons in 1837 representing the constituency of Maidstone.

" Looking on from the House of Lords, the Duke of Argyll wrote that Disraeli " was like a subaltern in a great battle where every superior officer was killed or wounded.

Disraeli spoke in favour of the measure, arguing that Christianity was " completed Judaism ," and asking of the House of Commons " Where is your Christianity if you do not believe in their Judaism?

The first opportunity for the protectionist Tories under Disraeli and Stanley to take office came in 1851, when Lord John Russell's government was defeated in the House of Commons over the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851.

After six years in opposition, Disraeli and the Conservative Party won the election of 1874, giving the party its first absolute majority in the House of Commons since the 1840s.

Disraeli was elevated to the House of Lords in 1876 when Queen Victoria made him Earl of Beaconsfield and Viscount Hughenden.

When these passed the House of Commons Disraeli called a General Election.

Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli ( Antony Sher ) has a weakening hold over the House of Commons and a fear of rising anti-monarchical sentiment in the country.

When Benjamin Disraeli and others took several nights in the House of Commons to impeach Palmerston's foreign policy, the foreign minister responded to a five-hour speech by Anstey with a five-hour speech of his own, the first of two great speeches in which he laid out a comprehensive defence of his foreign policy and of liberal interventionism more generally.

He was regarded as an influential Tory of the old school in the House of Lords at a time when Lord Derby and Disraeli were, in their different ways, moulding the Conservatism of the period.

It was at Gore House that d ' Orsay met Benjamin Disraeli and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, themselves young men of fashion who dabbled in the arts.

In 1876 Disraeli was raised to the peerage as Earl of Beaconsfield and moved to the House of Lords.

Following the death of Lord George Bentinck in 1848, Herries was suggested by Lord Stanley as an alternative to Benjamin Disraeli as Shadow Leader of the House of Commons.

The seventh Earl of Dumore served as a Lord-in-Waiting ( government whip in the House of Lords ) in the second Conservative administration of Benjamin Disraeli and was also Lord Lieutenant of Stirlingshire.

Giffard twice contested Cardiff in the Conservative interest, in 1868 and 1874, but he was still without a seat in the House of Commons when he was appointed Solicitor General by Disraeli in 1875 and received the honour of knighthood.

Lord Elphinstone sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer from 1867 to 1885 and served as a Lord-in-Waiting ( government whip in the House of Lords ) in the Conservative administrations of Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury.

His grandson, the fourth Earl, served in the second Conservative administration of Benjamin Disraeli as a Lord-in-Waiting ( government whip in the House of Lords ) from 1874 to 1880.