1952 Southport by-election

Last updated

The 1952 Southport by-election was held on 6 February 1952 after the incumbent Conservative MP Robert Hudson was elevated to a hereditary peerage. The Conservative candidate was Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh, a former mayor of Southport. [1] The Labour party selected 32-year old Alan Tillotson, an executive of the Bolton Evening News. [2] Hubert Bentliff, who had been the Liberal party's candidate at the previous year's general election, ran again for the party. [3]

The campaign focused mainly on issues arising from the general election, which had brought the Conservatives to power after six years of Labour government. For the Conservatives the focus was on the cost of living: "we are applying the brakes to arrest the disastrous fall in the buying power of the pound ... we are determined to put a stop to the creeping inflation which is not only eating into our social services, pensions and savings, but destroying our capacity to import the food and raw materials by which we live". Labour insisted that the Conservatives had won the general election by blaming the party for all the difficulties of the post war period: "They now admit ... that they were caused by circumstances outside the control of any Government" and warned that cuts in social services "might foreshadow more serious attacks on the welfare State in the Budget". [4]

With turnout down around 10,000 votes from the general election, the Labour vote declined slightly, Liberal support fell by nearly 4,000 and Conservative votes by nearly 6,000.. The result was a comfortable majority for the Conservatives in a constituency that they had only twice failed to win since the beginning of the century. [5]

Southport by-election, 1952 [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh 24,589 62.0 +1.8
Labour A L Tillotson11,31028.5+3.7
Liberal Hubert Bentliff 3,7769.5-5.5
Majority13,27933.5-1.9
Turnout 39,675
Conservative hold Swing

Previous Election

General election 1951: Southport
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Robert Hudson 30,388 60.2
Labour H O Ellis12,53524.8
Liberal Hubert Bentliff 7,57615.0
Majority17,85335.4
Turnout 50,49977.7
Conservative hold Swing

Related Research Articles

Liberal Party (UK) Major political party in the United Kingdom from 1859 to 1988

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties in the United Kingdom with the opposing Conservative Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free trade–supporting Peelites and the reformist Radicals in the 1850s. By the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and then won a landslide victory in the following year's general election.

The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, and also known colloquially as the Tories, Tory Party, or simply the Conservatives, is one of two main political parties and current governing party in the United Kingdom, winning the 2019 general election with an overall majority in the House of Commons. The party is generally considered to sit on the centre-right of the political spectrum, and to be ideologically conservative. As a big tent party, it encompasses various ideological factions including one-nation conservatives, Thatcherites, liberal conservatives and conservative liberals. The party currently has 359 Members of Parliament, 258 appointed members of the House of Lords, 9 members of the London Assembly, 31 members of the Scottish Parliament, 16 members of the Welsh Parliament, 3 directly elected mayors, 30 police and crime commissioners, and approximately 7,500 local authority councillors.

1997 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 1997 United Kingdom general election was held on 1 May 1997. The governing Conservative Party led by Prime Minister John Major was defeated in a landslide by the Labour Party led by Tony Blair.

1983 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats.

1945 United Kingdom general election National election in the United Kingdom

The 1945 United Kingdom general election was a national election held on 5 July 1945, but polling in some constituencies was delayed by some days, and the counting of votes was delayed until 26 July to provide time for overseas votes to be brought to Britain. The governing Conservative Party sought to maintain its position in Parliament but faced challenges from public opinion about the future of the United Kingdom in the post-war period. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proposed to call for a general election in Parliament, which passed with a majority vote less than two months after the conclusion of the Second World War in Europe.

1950 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever to be held after a full term of Labour government. The election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950, and was the first held following the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The government's 1945 lead over the Conservative Party shrank dramatically, and Labour was returned to power but with an overall majority reduced from 146 to just 5. There was a 2.8% national swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats. Labour called another general election in 1951, which the Conservative Party won.

1951 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. The Labour government called a snap election for Thursday 25 October 1951 in the hope of increasing its parliamentary majority. However, despite winning the popular vote and achieving both the highest-ever total vote and highest percentage vote share, Labour won fewer seats than the Conservative Party. This election marked the return of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, and the beginning of Labour's thirteen-year spell in opposition. This was the final general election to be held with George VI as monarch, as he died the following year on 6 February and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. This was also the last election in which the Conservatives did better in Scotland than in England.

1922 United Kingdom general election National general election in the United Kingdom

The 1922 United Kingdom general election was held on Wednesday 15 November 1922. It was won by the Conservative Party, led by Bonar Law, which gained an overall majority over the Labour Party, led by J. R. Clynes, and a divided Liberal Party.

2005 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats compared to the 167-seat majority it had won four years before. This was the first time the Labour Party had won a third consecutive election, and remains the party's most recent general election victory.

2010 United Kingdom general election Election of members to the House of Commons in 2010

The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.

Michael Meadowcroft British politician

Michael James Meadowcroft is a British author, politician and political affairs consultant. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Leeds West from 1983 to 1987.

Percy Harris British politician (1876–1952)

Sir Percy Alfred Harris, 1st Baronet, PC was a British Liberal Party politician. He was Liberal Chief Whip and Deputy Leader of the Liberal Parliamentary Party.

The 1932 Henley by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 25 February 1932 for the House of Commons constituency of Henley.

2012 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council election

The 2012 Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council election took on 3 May 2012 to elect members of Sefton Metropolitan Borough Council in England, as part of the 2012 United Kingdom local elections. 22 seats, representing one third of the total Council membership, were up for election in single-member wards. Ten - nearly half - of the members elected were newcomers to the Council; five of these defeated sitting Councillors seeking re-election, whilst in the other five wards, the incumbent retired. Two incumbents stood under different labels to those they were elected under in 2008; both were defeated in their wards.

1914 North West Durham by-election

The North West Durham by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 30 January 1914. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

2015 United Kingdom general election Election of members to the House of Commons in 2015

The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and only general election held at the end of a Parliament under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.

2017 United Kingdom general election General election held in United Kingdom

The 2017 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 8 June 2017, two years after the previous general election in 2015; it was the first since 1992 to be held on a day that did not coincide with any local elections. The governing Conservative Party remained the largest single party in the House of Commons but lost its small overall majority, resulting in the formation of a Conservative minority government with a confidence-and-supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland.

2019 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party receiving a landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 48 seats and won 43.6% of the popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since 1979.

Damien Moore British politician

Damien Moore is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Southport and a former Councillor on Preston City Council. He was elected in the 2017 general election with a majority of 2,914 votes, taking a seat previously held by Liberal Democrat John Pugh until his retirement.

An election to the County Council of London took place on 3 April 1952. The council was elected by First Past the Post with each elector having three votes in the three-member seats. The Labour Party made substantial gains and greatly increased its majority.

References

  1. "News in Brief." Times [London, England] 15 Jan. 1952
  2. "News in Brief." Times [London, England] 17 Jan. 1952
  3. "News in Brief." Times [London, England] 24 Jan. 1952
  4. OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. "Issues In Southport By-Election." Times [London, England] 2 Feb. 1952
  5. "Conservatives Hold Southport." Times [London, England] 7 Feb. 1952
  6. "1952 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 25 February 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2015.