1919 Spen Valley by-election

Last updated

1919 Spen Valley by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
←  1918 20 December 1919 1922  →
  Tom Myers crop.jpg John Simon crop.jpg Bryan Charles Fairfax.jpeg
Candidate Myers Simon Fairfax
Party Labour Liberal National Liberal
Popular vote11,96210,2448,134
Percentage39.433.826.8
MP before election

Whittaker
Liberal

Elected MP

Myers
Labour

The 1919 Spen Valley by-election was held on 20 December 1919. The by-election was held after the death of the incumbent Coalition Liberal MP, Thomas Whittaker. It was won by the Labour candidate, Tom Myers, [1] who had contested the constituency at the 1918 general election. The 1918 contest had been a straight fight between Whittaker and Myers, and had seen the former emerge victorious with a majority of 2,156 votes (11.2% of votes cast). [2]

The poll came at the same time as a serious split in the Liberal Party over continuing support for the coalition government: Colonel Bryan Fairfax was nominated as the Coalition Liberal candidate, and Sir John Simon stood as an Independent Liberal. [3] The poll was held on 20 December 1919, but the votes were not counted until 3 January 1920. [3] The result was seen as sensational, [4] with The Times describing it as a "political event of great significance", with voters deserting the government candidate in "a humiliation which cannot be explained away". [5]

In the view of Maurice Cowling, Simon's defeat by Labour marked the point at which Labour began to be seen as a serious threat by the older parties.

1919 Spen Valley by-election [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tom Myers 11,962 39.4 –5.0
Liberal John Simon 10,24433.8+21.8
National Liberal Bryan Charles Fairfax8,13426.8New
Majority1,7185.6N/A
Turnout 30,34076.5+27.1
Labour gain from Liberal Swing +13.4

Aftermath

At the 1922 general election, Simon contested the seat as the sole Liberal candidate, although the Conservatives now fielded a candidate. However Simon emerged victorious with a majority of 787 votes over Myers. Myers would fight the seat again in 1923 and 1924, but Simon increased his majority on both occasions, most significantly to over 4,000 votes in 1924 when no Conservative opposed him. [2] In the 1930s Simon broke from the Liberal Party, eventually forming his own Liberal National Party which worked in close alliance with the Conservatives. He would hold the Spen Valley seat until his elevation to the peerage in 1940, prompting the 1940 Spen Valley by-election. [2]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Batley and Spen (UK Parliament constituency)</span> Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom

Batley and Spen is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The current MP is Kim Leadbeater, a Labour politician, elected in a 2021 by-election by a 323-vote margin. The seat has returned Labour MPs since the 1997 general election.

Westminster Abbey was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by the first past the post system of election.

Spen Valley was a parliamentary constituency in the valley of the River Spen in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Parliamentary by-elections in the United Kingdom occur when a Member of Parliament (MP) vacates a House of Commons seat during the course of a parliament.

Eugene Joseph Squire Hargreaves Ramsden, 1st Baron Ramsden OBE, known as Sir Eugene Ramsden, Bt between 1938 and 1945, was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920 Stockport by-election</span>

The 1920 Stockport by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 March 1920 for the constituency of Stockport, in Cheshire.

The Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Central by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Aberdeenshire and Kincardineshire Central on 16 April 1919.

Alfred Ernest Newbould was a British cinematographer and Liberal politician.

The 1920 Middleton and Prestwich by-election was a by-election held on 22 November 1920 for the British House of Commons constituency of Middleton and Prestwich in Lancashire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ryland Adkins</span> English politician

Sir William Ryland Dent Adkins was an English barrister, judge and Liberal politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Strauss</span>

Edward Anthony Strauss was an English corn, grain and hop merchant of German-Jewish background. He was a Liberal, later Liberal National Member of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Sturrock (politician)</span> British politician (1878–1943)

John Leng Sturrock was a Scottish newspaper publisher and Liberal politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Wilberforce Allen</span>

Sir Ronald Wilberforce Allen was an English lawyer and Liberal politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">P. Gilchrist Thompson</span> English publisher and Liberal Party politician

Piers Gilchrist Thompson was an English publisher and Liberal Party politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maurice Alexander (barrister)</span> Canadian lawyer and soldier

Maurice Alexander, was a Canadian barrister and soldier who later moved to England and had careers in the Diplomatic Service, English law and politics.

The 1919 St Albans by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in England in December 1919 for the House of Commons constituency of St Albans in Hertfordshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Myers (politician)</span>

Tom Myers was a British Labour Party politician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1920 Camberwell North West by-election</span>

The 1920 Camberwell North West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Camberwell North West in the South London district of Camberwell on 31 March 1920.

The 1920 Cardiff City Council election was held on Monday 1 November 1920 to elect councillors to Cardiff City Council in Cardiff, Glamorgan, Wales. It took place on the same day as many other local elections in Wales and England.

References

  1. ↑ "SPEN VALLEY (YORKSHIRE)". Archived from the original on 10 August 2009. Retrieved 25 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. 1 2 3 4 Craig, F. W. S. (1969). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949. Glasgow: Political Reference Publications. p. 528. ISBN   0 900178 01 9.
  3. 1 2 "Spen Valley's Verdict. A Blow To The Coalition, Labour Member Returned, Sir J. Simon's Big Poll". The Times . 5 January 1920. p. 13.
  4. ↑ Previewing the 1 July 2021 by-elections (Parliamentary Special) Archived 1 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine Britainelects
  5. ↑ "The Parting of the Ways. Mr Lloyd-George's Two Courses". The Times . 5 January 1920. p. 13.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.