By-elections, also spelled bye-elections, are used to fill elected offices that have become vacant between general elections.
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster. Officially, the full name of the house is the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament assembled. Owing to shortage of space, its office accommodation extends into Portcullis House.
The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893, when the Liberals appeared reluctant to endorse working-class candidates, representing the interests of the majority. A sitting independent MP and prominent union organiser, Keir Hardie, became its first chairman.
Barnsley was a Parliamentary constituency covering the town of Barnsley in England. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.
A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combination of both. In such seats, there is very little chance of a seat changing hands because of the political leanings of the electorate in the constituency concerned and/or the popularity of the incumbent member. The opposite type of seat is a marginal seat.
The Liberal Party was one of the two major 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 Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American and French Revolutions 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.
At each election since its creation, the seat had been contested by both the Liberal Party and an opponent from the Conservative Party (or, on one occasion, from the Liberal Unionist Party). The Conservative's best result had come at the 1895 general election, where Ronald Greville had taken 40.6% of the vote. The following year, he had been elected for Bradford East, so he was not available to contest the by-election. After a struggle to find a candidate, the party selected James Blyth, a London-based captain in the Oxfordshire Light Infantry and a friend of Wakefield MP Lord Milton.[1] He had no political experience, and it was widely suspected that the party held no hope of capturing the seat.[2]
The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom. Presently led by Theresa May, it has been the governing party since 2010. It presently has 314 Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, 249 members of the House of Lords, and 18 members of the European Parliament. It also has 31 Members of the Scottish Parliament, 12 members of the Welsh Assembly, eight members of the London Assembly and 9,008 local councillors. One of the major parties of UK politics, it has formed the government on 45 occasions, more than any other party.
The Liberal Unionist Party was a British political party that was formed in 1886 by a faction that broke away from the Liberal Party. Led by Lord Hartington and Joseph Chamberlain, the party formed a political alliance with the Conservative Party in opposition to Irish Home Rule. The two parties formed the ten-year-long coalition Unionist Government 1895–1905 but kept separate political funds and their own party organisations until a complete merger was agreed in May 1912.
Peter Francis Curran was a British trade unionist and politician.
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow.
The Social Democratic Federation (SDF) was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on 7 June 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury, James Connolly and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term collaborator, refused to support Hyndman's venture. Many of its early leading members had previously been active in the Manhood Suffrage League.
Campaign
By far the largest employer in the area was the coal industry, and Barnsley was a stronghold of the Yorkshire Miners Association (YMA). Although he was not part of the Lib-Lab movement, Walton courted the support of local miners, and the YMA quickly gave him its backing. Ben Pickard, General Secretary of the YMA, was a particularly strong supporter, and he claimed that Curran was in league with the Conservatives. John Potts, checkweighman at Hemsworth Colliery, also supported Walton, although with some reservations. He said in the presence of Walton that he would favour a labour party at a time when state payment of MPs, and of election expenses would enable working men to be maintained in Parliament. But for now, "the Liberal party was the working man’s only hope".[1] Walton campaigned on much of the YMA's agenda, including an eight-hour working day for miners, the introduction of old age pensions and voting reform, although he opposed their campaign for nationalisation of the mines. He also admitted to sending coal to Yorkshire during the YMA strike of 1893, excusing this on the grounds that Yorkshire coal had been sent to County Durham during a strike up there.[1]
The Liberal–Labour movement refers to the practice of local Liberal associations accepting and supporting candidates who were financially maintained by trade unions. These candidates stood for the British Parliament with the aim of representing the working classes, while remaining supportive of the Liberal Party in general.
John Samuel Potts was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom who served a Member of Parliament (MP) for twelve years between 1922 and 1938.
Blyth opposed an eight-hour day, stating that it should not be a matter for parliamentary legislation. He hoped that the passage of the Workmen's Compensation Act under the Conservative government would garner him support, but it led many colliery owners, otherwise strong Conservatives, to refuse to campaign for him.[1]
The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, was a social movement to regulate the length of a working day, preventing excesses and abuses. It had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life. The use of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours, and the work week was typically six days a week. Robert Owen had raised the demand for a ten-hour day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan: "Eight hours' labour, Eight hours' recreation, Eight hours' rest". Women and children in England were granted the ten-hour day in 1847. French workers won the 12-hour day after the February Revolution of 1848. A shorter working day and improved working conditions were part of the general protests and agitation for Chartist reforms and the early organisation of trade unions.
The Workmen's Compensation Act 1897 was British law in operation from 1897 to 1946. Great Britain followed the German model. Joseph Chamberlain, leader of the Liberal Unionist party and in coalition with the Conservatives, designed a plan that was enacted under the Salisbury government in 1897. The Act was a key domestic achievement. It served its social purpose at no cost to the government, since compensation was paid for by insurance which employers were required to take out to pay for medical costs of injuries on the job. It replaced the Employers' Liability Act 1880, which gave the injured worker the right to sue the employer but put the burden of proof on the employee. After 1897, injured employees had only to show that they had been injured on the job. These are roughly the same rights German workers were awarded in their 1884 law. The Act was replaced by an expanded scheme under the Workmen's Compensation Act 1906.
Barnsley and District Trades and Labour Council, which did not include any miners' representatives, backed Curran. The ILP held a large number of meetings, bringing prominent speakers from around the country. They attracted large audiences, although they were strongly heckled and possibly attacked in Wombwell. Their campaign focussed on attacking Walton's role as an employer, claiming he had victimised miners. However, the Liberals countered, claiming that Curran had deserted his wife and was either an Orangeman or a Roman Catholic.[1]
Result
Walton held the seat comfortably, receiving a slight increase in his share of the vote. Their triumph was largely put down to the work of Pickard, and some liberal newspapers used the share as evidence that the ILP vote was coming from former Conservative supporters, not from Liberals. The ILP was disappointed by their weak showing, taking only 9.7% of the vote. The organisation was put in debt by paying its share of the election expenses, and as a result was not able to contest any further by-elections until 1900. However, it did manage to recruit some more members in the district. Ultimately, the defeat led to a re-evaluation of its approach, and to adopt instead a short-term policy of uniting all trade unions, socialist or not, into one political party. This vision led to the formation of the Labour Representation Committee and, ultimately, the Labour Party.[1]
Walton held the seat until he stood down in 1922. Blyth did not contest any further elections,[1] but Curran was eventually elected at the Jarrow by-election, 1907.[3]
The Glasgow Camlachie by-election was held on Wednesday 28 January 1948, following the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, Campbell Stephen.
The Glasgow Bridgeton by-election was held on 29 August 1946, following the death of Independent Labour Party (ILP) Member of Parliament for Glasgow Bridgeton, James Maxton.
Frederick Hall was a British Liberal Party or Lib-Lab then Labour Party politician who was an official of the Yorkshire Miners' Association.
Robert Smillie was a trade unionist and Labour Party politician in Great Britain, especially Scotland. He was a leader of the coal miners, and played a central role in moving support from the miners away from the Liberal Party to the Labour Party. He had a firm commitment to socialism as an ideal, and militancy as a tactic.
William Parrott was a British coalminer, trade union official and Liberal–Labour (Lib–Lab) politician.
The Neath by-election, 1945, was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Neath in South Wales.
Sir Joseph Walton, 1st Baronet, DL, JP was an English coalowner and Liberal Party politician.
The Wansbeck by-election, 1918 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland on 28 May 1918.
The Cleveland by-election, 1902 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Cleveland in the North Riding of Yorkshire on 5 November 1902.
The Barnsley Central by-election was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Barnsley Central which took place on 3 March 2011. The by-election resulted in the Labour Party holding the seat with an increased majority.
A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe on 4 May 1909.
A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Sheffield Attercliffe on 5 July 1894. It was the first parliamentary election contested by the Independent Labour Party.
A by-election was held in Keighley constituency in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1911 to fill a vacancy in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.
The Dewsbury by-election, 1902 was a by-election held in England on 28 January 1902 for the House of Commons constituency of Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
The Glamorgan County Council election, 1907 was the seventh contest for seats on this local authority in Wales. It was preceded by the 1904 election and followed by the 1910 election.
Edward Hough was a British trade unionist.
Isaac Burns, often known as Ike Burns, was a British trade unionist and political activist.
The Colne Valley Labour Union (CVLU) was a political party based in the Colne Valley, in Yorkshire, in England. The first labour party organised on the basis of a Parliamentary constituency, it successfully backed Tom Mann as secretary of the Independent Labour Party, and Victor Grayson as the local Member of Parliament. Its successor is the Colne Valley Constituency Labour Party.
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