1920 Basingstoke by-election

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1920 Basingstoke by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1918 31 March 1920 1922  
  Arthur Holbrook.jpg Harry Verney crop.jpg
Candidate Holbrook Verney Round
Party Unionist Liberal Labour
Popular vote8,5155,3935,352
Percentage44.2%28.0%27.8%

MP before election

Geddes
Unionist

Subsequent MP

Holbrook
Unionist

The 1920 Basingstoke by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Basingstoke on 31 March 1920.

Contents

Vacancy

The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Unionist MP, Auckland Geddes when he was appointed British Ambassador to the United States. He had been MP here since winning the seat in 1917.

Electoral history

The result at the last general election in 1918 was;

Geddes Auckland Geddes.png
Geddes
1918 general election [1]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
C Unionist Auckland Geddes 11,21864.1N/A
Independent Labour A. Close6,27735.9N/A
Majority4,94128.2N/A
Turnout 17,49555.2N/A
Unionist hold Swing
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Candidates

Verney 1920 Sir Harry Verney.jpg
Verney

Campaign

Polling Day was set for 31 March 1920. On 26 March nominations closed to confirm that the election would be a three-way contest.

Holbrook received the official endorsement of the Coalition Government in separate letters from Lloyd George and Bonar Law.

Farming was the dominant issue as the seat was mainly agricultural. By the rejection of Judd, the Unionists lost the support of a large section of farmers who threatened either to abstain from voting or to vote Liberal. For the Labour campaign, Round's chief hope lay in the organized farm labourers. [5]

Result

The Unionists held onto the seat with a much reduced majority, while the Liberals won the battle for second place.

1920 Basingstoke by-election [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
C Unionist Arthur Richard Holbrook 8,51544.2−19.9
Liberal Harry Verney 5,39328.0N/A
Labour James Harry Round5,35227.8N/A
Majority3,12216.2−12.0
Turnout 19,26060.0+4.8
Unionist hold Swing -5.9
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Aftermath

Holbrook defended his seat at the following general election, while Verney moved to contest Skipton. Round did not stand again. The result at the following general election in 1922 was;

1922 general election [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Arthur Richard Holbrook 12,514 56.0 +11.8
Liberal Reginald Fletcher 6,78030.4+2.4
Labour Samuel Ledbury3,03513.6−14.2
Majority5,73425.6+9.4
Turnout 22,32966.9+6.9
Unionist hold Swing +4.7

References

  1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  2. ‘HOLBROOK, Col Sir Arthur (Richard)’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2007; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2012; online edn, Oct 2012 accessed 16 Dec 2013
  3. English By-elections Since 1918, Edith Adelaide Harrison
  4. Angus Evening Telegraph, 17 Mar 1920
  5. English By-elections Since 1918, Edith Adelaide Harrison
  6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

See also