Budget Protest League Budget Protest League The Budget Protest League was a British pressure group formed in June 1909 and led by Walter Long to oppose David Lloyd George's "People's Budget" outside of Parliament. The League attacked the Budget's Finance (1909-10) Act 1910 as Socialist because of its income tax rises, increased death duties, and a land value tax in order to redistribute this to old age pensions. It was not linked to tariff reform. It produced posters outlining its opposition to Lloyd George and the Budget. In a letter to "The Times" announcing the formation of the Budget Protest League, Long said:
David Lloyd George triumph. He had won the case of social reform without losing the debate on Free Trade. Arthur Balfour denounced the budget as "vindictive, inequitable, based on no principles, and injurious to the productive capacity of the country." Roy Jenkins described it as the most reverberating since Gladstone's in 1860. In the House of Commons, Lloyd George gave a brilliant account of the budget, which was attacked by the Conservatives. On the stump, notably at his Limehouse speech in 1909, he denounced the Conservatives and the wealthy classes with all his very considerable oratorical power. The budget was defeated by the