After winning the election of 1922, Bonar Law, terminally ill, resigned in May 1923. Though holding a majority in government, the Tories were still split, as many of those who stayed to the bitter end of the former coalition had refused to take office in Law's cabinet. Their absence explains why the hitherto unknown Stanley Baldwin was to become leader of the party barely two years after first entering a major ministerial post. Baldwin called an election in 1923 on the issue of tariffs but lost his majority; Ramsay MacDonald formed a minority Labour government. Baldwin was back after winning the 1924 election. His second government brought in Austen Chamberlain as Foreign Secretary, Winston Churchill at the Exchequer, and Neville Chamberlain at the health ministry. Baldwin adroitly handled the General Strike in 1926 and passed the 1927 Trades Disputes Act to curb the powers of trade unions. Baldwin lost the 1929 General Election and his continued leadership was subject to sharp criticism by the press barons Rothermere and Beaverbrook.