By 1956 the Liberal Party (LP) had a new leadership and articulated a vision of change based on mass non-violent pressure in which it would play a part alongside the congresses. This replaced the earlier notion that by offering a living example of racial co-operation and ‘by argument, much organisation, and ceaseless constitutional action’ the party would emerge as the only rational vehicle for evolutionary change. While changes in the party were influenced to a degree by Congress's criticism they resulted largely from an internal critique and overhaul of liberalism initiated by party progressives and intellectuals in 1953.

The Liberal Party in 1953

When it was formed the LP was hailed in the English press as ‘a new party formed to revive and keep alive an old idea’. Margaret Ballinger saw it as a support group for the native representatives and the principles they espoused in Parliament:

The party emerged from its first national conference in July 1953 with a statement of principle almost entirely derived from the South African Liberal Association (SALA). The LP endorsed a qualified non-racial franchise and segregation by consent but not by force, and opposed ‘all forms of totalitarianism such as communism and fascism’.

Moreover, it was committed to using ‘only democratic and constitutional means’ of opposition. Margaret Ballinger claimed that its constitutional approach would ultimately offer blacks ‘a full share in the life of this country’ and obviate another ‘unparliamentary outbreak like the Defiance Campaign’.

Joined by her husband Senator William Ballinger, together with LP members Walter Stanford and Leslie Rubin, elected as Native Representatives in 1954, Margaret Ballinger advised the LP to concentrate on the general principles it had endorsed and to leave ‘practical decisions on day to day issues’ to the parliamentarians. This was not the role many liberal activists had in mind.