Radicals (UK) - Definition and Overview

The Radicals were a left wing political grouping in Britain in the early to mid 19th century.

The Radical movement arose in the early 19th century to support parliamentary reform, Catholic emancipation, and free trade, and were instrumental in the founding of the Anti-Corn Law League in 1839. Their leading lights were Richard Cobden and John Bright. The radical movement was a distinctly middle class one; its radicalism consisted in its opposition to the political dominance and economic interests of the traditional British elites, rather than to any affinity to socialism. The Radicals joined with the Whigs and the Peelites to form the Liberal Party by 1859.

See also

• Liberalism in the United Kingdom