A Conservative Member of Parliament (1908–37), he was a member of Lloyd George’s coalition (1918–22) but led the Conservative rebellion against him. He was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Bonar Law and was chosen as Prime Minister in preference to Curzon when Law resigned in 1923. He lost the 1923 election in an attempt to introduce tariffs but returned to office in 1924. His premiership was marked by the return to the gold standard, the General Strike, Neville Chamberlain’s social legislation, and the Trades Dispute Act of 1927. He lost the 1929 election, but served under Ramsay Macdonald in the coalition caused by the 1931 crisis, succeeding him as Prime Minister in 1935. His last ministry had to deal with the Abdication crisis (see edward viii), which he handled skilfully. In 1935 he approved the Hoare‐Laval pact which allowed fascist Italy to annex Ethiopia. Although international relations continued to deteriorate with the German occupation of the Rhineland and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, Baldwin opposed rearmament, believing that the public would not support it.