1906 Huddersfield by-election
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The1906Huddersfieldby-electionwas aParliamentary by-electionheld on 28 November 1906.[1]The constituency returned oneMember of Parliament(MP) to theHouse of Commons of the United Kingdom,elected by thefirst past the postvoting system.
Vacancy
[edit]Sir James Woodhousehad been Liberal MP here since the 1895 general election. He resigned upon his appointment as the Rail and Canal Traffic Commissioner.
Electoral history
[edit]The seat had been Liberal since Woodhouse re-gained it in 1895. It had been a marginal seat, but Woodhouse had won with a bit to spare in 1895 and 1900. He narrowly held the seat at the last election after the intervention of a Labour candidate.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | James Woodhouse | 6,302 | 38.2 | −15.4 | |
Labour Repr. Cmte. | T. Russell Williams | 5,813 | 35.2 | New | |
Conservative | John Foster Fraser | 4,391 | 26.6 | −19.8 | |
Majority | 489 | 3.0 | −4.2 | ||
Turnout | 16,506 | 94.0 | +6.2 | ||
Registered electors | 17,568 | ||||
Liberalhold | Swing | +2.2 |
Candidates
[edit]The local Liberal Association selected the 43-year-old temperance campaignerArthur Sherwellto defend the seat. The Conservatives retained the 38-year-old journalistJohn Foster Fraseras their candidate. The 37-year-oldThomas Russell Williams,who had stood as a candidate of theLabour Representation Committee,at the general election also stood again but this time as the candidate of the Labour Party. Although raised in Huddersfield, he worked as a mill manager inKeighley.[3]
Campaign
[edit]Polling day was fixed for 28 November 1906. The Conservative and Labour challengers started with an advantage, as their names were known from having contested the constituency nine months earlier. The Liberals had received a setback, losingCockermouthto the Conservatives ina by-electionthree months earlier. Liberal candidates in other by-elections had also seen their vote share fall from the party's general election high point. In Huddersfield, since the general election, the Liberal association had undergone reorganisation and had substantially increased its membership. Williams, the Labour candidate, was regarded as a quasi-Marxist socialist and struggled to relate his stances to local trade unionists, who wanted firm policy commitments from him.[3]Sherwell, the Liberal candidate, supported giving women the vote. However, theWomen's Social and Political Unionset up a local campaign office to campaign against him.[4]
Result
[edit]The Liberals held the seat with a slightly reduced majority.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Arthur Sherwell | 5,762 | 36.0 | −2.2 | |
Labour | T. Russell Williams | 5,422 | 33.8 | −1.4 | |
Conservative | John Foster Fraser | 4,844 | 30.2 | +3.6 | |
Majority | 340 | 2.2 | −0.8 | ||
Turnout | 16,028 | 91.2 | −2.8 | ||
Liberalhold | Swing | -0.4 |
Aftermath
[edit]The Labour Party decided that after two contests, Williams was not a good candidate and so it changed him for another for the next election, only to see their share of the vote drop further. The Huddersfield Liberals stifled the growth of the Labour Party up to the First World War.[3]
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Arthur Sherwell | 7,158 | 39.8 | +3.8 | |
Labour | Harry Snell | 5,686 | 31.6 | −2.2 | |
Conservative | Harold Smith | 5,153 | 28.6 | −1.6 | |
Majority | 1,472 | 8.2 | +5.2 | ||
Turnout | 17,997 | 94.6 | +0.6 | ||
Registered electors | 19,021 | ||||
Liberalhold | Swing | +2.6 |
References
[edit]- ^Craig, F.W.S. (1987).Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections 1833–1987.Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 100.
- ^abcBritish parliamentary election results, 1885-1918,F. W. S. Craig
- ^abcLiberalism and the Rise of Labour 1890-1918byKeith Laybourn,Jack Reynolds, Routledge, 1984
- ^The Scottish Suffragettes and the Pressby Sarah Pedersen, Palgrave MacMillan, 2017