1945 Leeds City Council election

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The 1945 Leeds municipal elections were held on Thursday 1 November 1945. [1] Although a third of the council would ordinarily be up for election, the suspension of elections during World War II meant the council had last held elections in 1938, and with the amount of vacancies and co-options throughout near to two-thirds of the council needed electing. [2]

Contents

Labour repeated their earlier national performance and won sweeping victories across the country, [1] with Leeds no exception, picking up 40 of the 48 seats contested (with Richmond Hill going unopposed) and stealing control of the council from the Conservatives. [2] [3] The Conservatives only managed eight defences, which were confined to their bastions of Far Headingley, Hyde Park, North and Roundhay, although running Labour exceptionally close in Blenheim. [2] The minor parties also failed to escape the Labour tide, as the Liberals lost both their representatives (a councillor and an alderman) and the Communists their sole councillor in Woodhouse - formally Labour, but expelled for alleged Communist sympathies. [2] [3] [4]

As well as the 21 gains Labour made that night, the gentlemen's agreement - signed between Labour and the Conservatives in 1930 to allocate aldermen in proportion to their councillors - further rewarded Labour with an extra five aldermen at mostly Tory expense (the other being the aforementioned Liberal) in recognition of those gains. As a result, Labour emerged with an overall majority of 42 on a turnout of 43.3%. [3]

Election result

Leeds local election result 1945
PartySeatsGainsLossesNet gain/lossSeats %Votes %Votes+/−
  Labour 40210+2183.357.584,969
  Conservative 8019-1916.736.954,551
  Liberal 001-10.05.68,214

The result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections: [3]

PartyPrevious councilNew council
Cllr Ald CllrAld
Labour37105815
Conservatives39152011
Liberals1100
Communists1000
Total78267826
104104
Working majority -4  -6  38  4 
 -10  42 

Ward results

Armley & Wortley [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Joseph Wilkinson3,47780.9
Labour Joseph Bissell3,473
Labour Annie Marlow3,464
Conservative Joseph Hiley82319.1
Majority 2,64161.7
Turnout 4,300
Beeston [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Wilfred Webster4,08351.3
Conservative Joseph Moorhouse2,99537.7
Liberal Ms Rowena Richardson87411.0
Majority 1,08813.7
Turnout 7,952
Blenheim [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Albert Smith2,20650.5
Conservative Sydney Webster2,16349.5
Majority 431.0
Turnout 4,369
Bramley [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ernest Kavanagh4,96055.6
Conservative James Reginald Herbert Greaves2,91332.6
Liberal Fred Plews1,05211.8
Majority 2,04723.0
Turnout 8,925
Burmantofts [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour William Jackson2,44080.0
Labour Thomas McKellar2,408
Conservative John Claude Bidgood61020.0
Conservative George Hedley Monkman585
Majority 1,79860.0
Turnout 3,050
Central [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour William Spence2,19469.1
Conservative Philip Kay Stead98330.9
Majority 1,21138.2
Turnout 3,177
Cross Gates & Temple Newsam [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour William Lunn5,70157.5
Labour Richard Thomas5,485
Conservative Herbert Adamson4,20742.5
Conservative Morris Tomlinson3,907
Majority 1,27815.0
Turnout 9,908
East Hunslet [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Frederic Naylor2,80768.0
Labour Robert Peart2,608
Liberal Alfred Kennedy1,31832.0
Liberal Albert Hope1,169
Majority 1,29036.0
Turnout 4,125
Far Headingley [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Ernest Osborne5,60766.8
Conservative John William Richardson Hargrave5,540
Labour David Beevers2,79133.2
Labour Ms. Irene Morley Clayden2,730
Majority 2,74933.6
Turnout 8,398
Farnley & Wortley [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Leonard Wood Wilkinson4,80265.5
Labour Charles Victor Woods4,636
Conservative John Francis Power2,53334.5
Conservative Frank Carter2,397
Majority 2,10331.0
Turnout 7,335
Harehills [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ms. Alice Jolley4,70060.7
Labour Kenneth Arthur Muir4,374
Conservative James Walker Booth2,19928.4
Conservative George Astle2,142
Liberal Thomas Edmund Hodgson83910.8
Liberal Arthur Gerald Shackleton675
Majority 2,17532.3
Turnout 7,738
Holbeck North [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Cornelius Fitzgerald1,15276.5
Labour James William Veitch1,138
Liberal Walter Holdsworth35423.5
Liberal Gilbert Whittaker Storey331
Majority 78453.0
Turnout 1,506
Holbeck South [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Joseph Thomas Dickinson3,01069.3
Labour William Maldwyn Jones2,934
Conservative Harold Stanley Jowett76717.7
Liberal Wilfred Ernest Hopper56813.1
Liberal Bertie Morris Turner489
Majority 2,16751.6
Turnout 4,345
Hunslet Carr & Middleton [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Charles Jenkinson6,65280.1
Labour James Edward Hodkinson6,424
Conservative Andrew William Colin Cumming1,65719.9
Majority 4,76760.1
Turnout 8,309
Hyde Park [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Percy Horner Hutchinson3,49757.2
Conservative Frederic Walker3,397
Labour Ms. Annie Margaret Maud Happold2,62042.8
Labour Herbert Kemp2,424
Majority 77714.3
Turnout 6,11747.6
Kirkstall [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Marshall Clegg4,97858.5
Labour George Clifford Bell4,885
Conservative Archibold Caton Scarr2,70131.7
Conservative Charles Lockwood Turnbull2,569
Liberal Arthur Lawrence Braithwaite Childe8349.8
Liberal Frederic Melville Fisher718
Majority 2,18426.7
Turnout 8,513
Mill Hill & South [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ms. Gertrude Bray 1,38757.0
Labour Harry Holdsworth1,380
Conservative Herbert Preston Peacock1,04843.0
Conservative Alfred Edward Weaver1,032
Majority 33213.9
Turnout 2,435
North [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Edward John Loy Wooler5,21357.5
Conservative Ms. Dorothy Murphy4,967
Labour Ms. Lillian Hammond2,60528.7
Labour Norman Davy2,477
Liberal Winifred Francis Underhill1,24713.8
Liberal Albert Edward Marshall1,238
Majority 2,36228.8
Turnout 9,065
Osmondthorpe [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ms. May Firth3,81776.0
Labour Fred Potter3,781
Conservative Albert Edward Baker1,20424.0
Conservative Herbert Reginald Stott1,143
Majority 2,57752.0
Turnout 5,021
Potternewton [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Charles Benjamin Bradley3,38156.6
Labour Karl Cyril Cohen3,197
Labour Barnet Weinrib3,121
Conservative James Thomas Mulley2,59543.4
Conservative Charles Henry Driver2,587
Conservative Eldon Jenkins Fenton2,518
Majority 52613.2
Turnout 5,976
Richmond Hill [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Willie FowlerUnopposedN/AN/A
Roundhay [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Francis Eric Tetley5,66162.1
Conservative Alexander Ayrton Watt5,257
Labour Ms. Ivy Veitch3,46237.9
Labour William Merritt3,434
Majority 1,79524.1
Turnout 9,123
Upper Armley [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ernest Blackburn3,73859.0
Labour John Herbert Underwood3,729
Labour William Bramham3,719
Conservative Ms. Jenny Wormald2,59841.0
Conservative Edward Dean Glover2,528
Conservative Matthew Farey2,421
Majority 1,12118.0
Turnout 6,336
West Hunslet [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Harold Watson3,72571.0
Conservative Percival Arthur Woodward96018.3
Liberal George Petch56010.7
Majority 2,76552.7
Turnout 5,245
Westfield [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour William Villiers Stoner1,55174.1
Labour Ms. Edith Youngman1,528
Conservative Ms. Mabel Burton54125.9
Conservative Stanley Hodgson Doyle527
Majority 98748.3
Turnout 2,092
Woodhouse [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Ms. Mary Pearce2,73062.4
Conservative George Sydney Taylor1,07624.6
Liberal Ernest Lightowler56813.0
Majority 1,65437.8
Turnout 4,374

References

  1. 1 2 "Labor Gains Widen in British Returns". The New York Times . 3 November 1945. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 "Municipal results: Leeds". The Yorkshire Post . 2 November 1945.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Sharpe, L.J. (1967). Voting in cities: the 1964 borough elections.
  4. ↑ Johnson, C. (1946). The End of Socialism: The Reflections of a Radical.
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