Rise of Neville Chamberlain Chamberlain demanded that Mosley retract the claim "as a gentleman". Mosley, whom Baldwin described as "a cad and a wrong 'un", refused to retract the allegation. It took several recounts before Chamberlain was declared the winner by 77 votes and Mosley blamed poor weather for the result. Chamberlain had not wanted to desert Ladywood, but now deemed the seat impossible to hold and was adopted for Birmingham Edgbaston for the next election (held in 1929), at which Ladywood fell to Labour by eleven votes. The Unionists won the 1924 election, their last under that name. Baldwin formed a new government,
Neville Chamberlain July 1940, which blamed Chamberlain and his associates for the Munich accord and for allegedly failing to prepare the country for war. Most historians in the generation following Chamberlain's death held similar views, which were led by Churchill in "The Gathering Storm". However, some recent historians have taken a more favourable perspective of Chamberlain and his policies, citing government papers released under the Thirty Year Rule and arguing that going to war with Germany in 1938 would have been disastrous as the UK was unprepared. Nonetheless, Chamberlain is still unfavourably ranked amongst British Prime Ministers. Chamberlain was born on 18