 Rea made support for Irish Home Rule the first item in his election address, and his meeting in Picton Hall on 5 November was addressed by T. P. O'Connor, the Nationalist MP for Liverpool Scotland.George Baden-Powell, the Conservative MP for Liverpool Kirkdale, denounced Rea's stance in a letter to McArthur.He claimed that Rea "surrenders himself as the 'white slave' of their masters, the Nationalists, whose one avowed aim is the disintegration of the United Kingdom, the certain forerunner of the breakup of our great and valiant empire".