 He was re-elected at the 1935 general election as a "Liberal independent of all groups in the party" – again without Conservative opposition, though with a drastically reduced majority (over Ayles) of 4,828 – and finally joined the Liberal Nationals in September 1936 (though he seems to have been in negotiations with them even before the 1935 election).His decision to end his period of vacillation may have been motivated by a sense that he had burned his bridges with the official Liberals (no longer 'Samuelite', since Samuel had lost his seat in 1935 and the party was now led by Sir Archibald Sinclair), and that it would be hard for him to advance in his political career as an independent Liberal; while as a Liberal National he would be eligible for office in the National Government without having to go the whole hog and become a Conservative (an option which, many entries in his diaries suggest, would have been not only politically but also personally repugnant to him).It may also have been connected with the tragic death of his mother Lillian, who, after a long period of depressive illness and voluntary residence in nursing homes, was found dead in the River Thames just before Christmas 1935.