1931 Sunderland by-election

The 1931 Sunderland by-election was held on 26 March 1931. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Alfred Smith. Smith and his Labour colleague Dr Marion Phillips had gained the two-member seat at the last general election from the Conservatives Luke Thompson and Walter Raine, who had first won it in 1922 ^[1] Another defeated candidate in 1929 was the Liberal Dr Betty Morgan, then aged 24. ^[1] Both Thompson and Morgan contested the by-election.

The by-election saw Luke Thompson narrowly regain the seat he had lost in 1929 for the Conservatives. At the general election held later in the year, Thompson was returned with a greatly increased majority of over 23,000 votes, and his fellow Conservative Samuel Storey was also comfortably elected as the seat's second member. ^[2]

General election 1929: Sunderland ^[3] Electorate 101,875

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Y Marion Phillips	31,794	19.5	+0.2
	Labour	Y Alfred Smith	31,085	19.0	N/A
	Conservative	Walter Raine	29,180	17.9	−7.4
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	28,937	17.7	−7.7
	Liberal	Betty Morgan	21,300	13.0	−4.8
	Liberal	John Pratt	21,142	12.9	+0.7
Majority			1,905	1.1	N/A
Turnout			163,438	81.1	−3.5
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

1931 Sunderland by-election ^[3] Electorate 103,363

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	30,497	40.3	+3.7
	Labour	James Thomas Brownlie	30,074	39.8	+1.3
	Liberal	Betty Morgan	15,020	19.9	−6.0
Majority			423	0.5	N/A
Turnout			75,591	73.1	−8.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

References

1. The Times House of Commons 1929. London: The Times Office. 1929. p. 62.
2. The Times House of Commons 1931. London: The Times Office. 1931. p. 58.
3. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig, F.W.S.