Moore, who had been made Deputy Leader of the Opposition in 1920, was among those Country Party members who, suspicious of United Party motives, refused to join a proposed Country-United merger mooted in the January 1923. The feuding had begun to subside by 1924, when on 9 April Moore was elected Leader of the Opposition, and then in the next year the Country and United parties joined to form the Country Progressive Party, amid criticisms from members of the organisational wings of both former organisations. The Party changed its name in December 1925 to the Country and Progressive National Party (CPNP). The CPNP gained sixteen seats in the elections of 1926 without winning government, and in 1929, amid threats of further division within the CPNP ranks, Moore won a large victory against William McCormack, plagued with his own internal problems, to become Premier.