Hughes and his followers rebranded themselves as the "National Labor Party, and continued in office as a minority government with support from Cook and his Commonwealth Liberal Party. With the war dragging on, Hughes began negotiations with Cook to turn their confidence-and-supply agreement into formal party unity. That February, at the urging of the Governor-General, Sir Robert Munro Ferguson, the two groups formally merged to form the Nationalist Party, with Hughes as leader and Cook as deputy leader. The new party was dominated by former Liberals, and as such was basically an upper- and middle-class party. However, the presence of many former Labor men—many of whom had been early leaders in that party—allowed the Nationalists to project an image of national unity.