In February 1943 the ABC broadcast a profile of Percy Spender as part of a series of Australian biographies. Rich in detail and generally admiring, the profile concluded; ‘Mr Spender is one of the small group of men … who have done much to raise the quality of the federal parliament in the last decade; young and successful men, but with a breadth of culture and independence of mind which distinguish them from the conservative leaders of a past generation’.

Spender's strong streak of independence, both literal in his status during his first year in parliament and then evident in his behaviour after joining the United Australia Party, gave him a maverick status in the party. His position within the UAP was not quite unique, for there were some general dividing lines in non Labor politics. In New South Wales a generational divide corresponded roughly to those with whom he mingled. A good number of older members never forgave Spender his impudent deposing of party stalwart, Parkhill. The younger members (i.e. those under fifty), often university educated, and several in law, formed their own sub-group. As Henry Storey, one of the young turks, recalled, the 1930s was remarkable for the sudden influx of university-educated men who revelled in ‘hunting and scalp-gathering together’. Independent-minded members flourished in an environment enriched by the jostling of conservative. Wales energy flowed smoothly into a rift-ridden federal party.