Let us never forget this: since the day of the air, the old frontiers are gone. When you think of the defense of England you no longer think of the chalk cliffs of Dover; you think of the Rhine. That is where our frontier lies.

Baldwin responded by denying that the Luftwaffe was approaching equality and that it was "not 50 per cent" of the RAF. In September 1941 Baldwin's old enemy Lord Beaverbrook asked all local authorities to survey their area's iron and steel railings and gates that could be used for the war effort. He wants a scapegoat and the men provided him with one".

Baldwin lost the 1929 General Election and his continued leadership was subject to criticism by the press barons Rothermere and Beaverbrook. By 2004 however historians generally painted a positive portrait of his governments. Baldwin's third government saw a number of crises in foreign affairs including the public uproar over the Hoare-Laval Pact Hitler's reoccupation of the Rhineland and the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.