Such was the state of public fury that it appeared possible for several days afterwards that the Chamberlain government might fall due to a backbencher rebellion.

Shortly afterwards he voted against the Chamberlain government in the debate following the British defeat at Narvik in Norway.

Nonetheless, the Chamberlain government received strong, almost unanimous support from the British press.

During the late thirties, the paper was a strong advocate of the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government, due to the direct influence of its owner Lord Beaverbrook.

In the late 1930s Beaverbrook had been a strong advocate of the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government.

In May 1940, when the Chamberlain government fell and a coalition was to be formed there were two candidates for Prime Minister: Halifax and Winston Churchill.

In May 1940, the resignations of Hoare, Sir John Simon, and Kingsley Wood were essential conditions for the broadening of the Chamberlain government.

Yet Halifax was within a whisker of becoming Britain's wartime leader and, as this new study makes clear, was central in turning the Chamberlain government away from appeasement and towards war preparations.

The Chamberlain government had reached the end of the road.

The Nationalists wished to prevent the fall of the favourable Chamberlain government in the United Kingdom, and so were seen to accept the plan.