At the 1929 election Baldwin won Dudley, and served as a backbench supporter of Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government. His father had lost the election, but remained an MP, and became Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons; unusually, father and son now sat facing each other across the House of Commons. Baldwin Snr initially found it difficult to bear, telling one of his daughters that he ‘nearly died’ when he first saw Oliver sitting on the opposite benches to himself in the House of Commons, but matters were smoothed over by a letter Baldwin wrote to console his father: "Wherever I have gone on my political rounds during the past six years I have never heard any of our supporters speak other than in a kindly way of your personal self… To you, who have generally been victorious, the results may disappoint you, but take it from one who, until the other day, has always been on the losing side, always in the minority and generally alone, that victory or defeat are both flatterers and as such are of no serious consequence."