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]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unionist | Brendan Bracken | 22,980 | 46.85 | −8.60 | |
Labour | Edward Shackleton | 16,526 | 33.69 | +11.98 | |
Liberal | Basil Wigoder | 9,548 | 19.46 | −3.39 | |
Majority | 6,454 | 13.16 | −19.44 | ||
Turnout | 49,054 | ||||
Conservative hold | Swing | -10.3 |