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The 1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in October 1919 for the British House of Commons constituency of Manchester Rusholme. The by-election was important for shaping the future Labour Party attitude to electoral relations with the Liberal Party.
In September 1919 the Conservative MP Robert Burdon Stoker died. He had previously represented Manchester South since March 1918. At the 1918 general election he had been in receipt of the Coalition Government coupon.
The seat was created for the 1918 general election partly out of the Unionist/Liberal marginal seat of Manchester South and partly out of the Liberal seat of Stretford. The result at the last general election was;
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | Robert Burdon Stoker | 12,447 | 66.1 | N/A |
| Liberal | Walter Butterworth | 3,690 | 19.3 | N/A | |
| Labour | Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence | 2,985 | 15.6 | N/A | |
| Majority | 8,748 | 45.8 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 19,122 | 62.9 | N/A | ||
| Unionist hold | Swing | N/A | |||
| Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
The election campaign took place during the great railway strike of 1919. [5] Dunstan, the Labour candidate, sought to appeal to the centre ground by calling for widespread abolition of economic war-time restrictions. Pringle, the Liberal candidate, came out in support of Labour's policy of a capital levy, something that was not Liberal policy. It has been suggested that this stance may have cost him votes, lost to the Unionist candidate. [6] Pringle advocated economic retrenchment to appeal to Unionist voters and also the nationalization of the railways and mines to appeal to Labour voters. [7]
The turnout for the by-election was up on the last general election. The Unionists managed to hold the seat. Their support had fallen, but not much because of the intervention of the National Party. The Labour candidate did particularly well and pushed the Liberal candidate into third place.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | John Henry Thorpe | 9,394 | 45.7 | -20.4 |
| Labour | Robert Dunstan | 6,412 | 31.2 | +15.6 | |
| Liberal | William Pringle | 3,923 | 19.1 | -0.2 | |
| National | Roger Bowan Crewdson | 815 | 4.0 | New | |
| Majority | 2,982 | 14.5 | -31.3 | ||
| Turnout | 20,544 | 67.5 | +4.6 | ||
| Unionist hold | Swing | -18.0 | |||
| Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
The relative success of the Labour party in such a constituency encouraged them to field candidates in further Unionist/Liberal marginals rather than seek to reconstruct the Progressive Alliance. [9]
Thorpe sat until his defeat by the Liberals in 1923. His son Jeremy Thorpe, became Leader of the Liberal Party. Dunstan continued to be unsuccessful in his bid to enter Parliament. Pringle made a successful return to the House in 1922, winning Penistone for the Liberals. Crewdson's political career ended here. The result at the following general election saw the Liberals regain second place;
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | John Henry Thorpe | 11,765 | 47.9 | +2.2 | |
| Liberal | E Frederick M Sutton | 6,421 | 26.1 | +7.0 | |
| Labour | Albert Ernest Wood | 6,397 | 26.0 | -5.2 | |
| Majority | 5,344 | 21.8 | +7.3 | ||
| Turnout | 24,583 | 77.8 | +10.3 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -2.4 | |||
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