1945 Bournemouth by-election

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The 1945 Bournemouth by-election was held on 15 November 1945. The by-election was held due to the elevation to hereditary peerage of the incumbent Conservative MP, Sir Leonard Lyle. It was won by the Conservative candidate Brendan Bracken, [1] who was a prominent supporter of Winston Churchill and Conservative parliamentarian who had lost his Paddington North seat to Labour in the 1945 Labour landslide. Somewhat unusually, there was a significant swing to the governing party, with Labour achieving a swing of more than 10%.

This election had the biggest swing for an incumbent governing party in a by-election until the 2021 Hartlepool by-election. [2]

Bournemouth by-election, 1945 [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Brendan Bracken 22,98046.85−8.60
Labour Edward Shackleton 16,52633.69+11.98
Liberal Basil Wigoder 9,54819.46−3.39
Majority 6,45413.16−19.44
Turnout 49,054
Conservative hold Swing -10.3

References

  1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  2. "How the Tories' Hartlepool by-election victory set a postwar record". www.newstatesman.com. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
  3. "1945 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2015.