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13 May 2018updated 28 Jun 2021 4:38am

An accidental prime minister: the underrated career of the pragmatic Lord Liverpool

In the age of Putin and Assad, British politics could learn a lesson from Liverpool.

By Brendan Simms

Liverpool was born into politics as Robert Banks Jenkinson, son of Charles Jenkinson, formerly joint secretary of the Treasury and later president of the Board of Trade. His mother tragically died shortly after he was born. His father was subsequently raised to the peerage as Lord Hawkesbury, and then as First Earl of Liverpool, titles Robert was to inherit. Here readers need to keep their wits about them, as the profusion of titles becomes a little confusing once the hero reaches early middle age. Robert Jenkinson inherited from his father not only a wealth of political connections, but also a command of issues and detail that marked him out against more expansive characters such as Charles James Fox.

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