1943 Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election
The1943 Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-electionwas a parliamentaryby-electionheld inScotlandon 11 February 1943 to elect a newMember of Parliament(MP) for theHouse of CommonsconstituencyofMidlothian and Peebles Northern.
It was notable for the strong showing of theCommon Wealth Partycandidate.
Vacancy[edit]
The vacancy was caused by the resignation in January 1943[1]of the constituency'sUnionistMP,John Colville,to take up the post ofGovernor of Bombay.He had held the seat since the1929 general election.[2]
Candidates[edit]
DuringWorld War II,the parties in theCoalition Governmenthad agreed not to contest by-elections in seats held by other coalition parties, and many wartime by-elections were therefore unopposed.
The Unionist Party nominatedSir David King Murray,theSolicitor General for Scotland,who may have expected to be returned unopposed. TheLabour,LiberalandNational Liberalparties upheld the agreement, but other parties who disagreed with the truce could not be prevented from standing as independent candidates, and nor could other minor parties. In this case, the newly formedCommon Wealth Partynominated its candidateTom Wintringham,one of the party's founders.
Result[edit]
The result was a victory for the Unionist candidate,Sir David King Murray,[3]but with a massively-reduced majority. At the1935 general election,the Unionist majority over theLabour Partycandidate had been 25.8% of the votes, but Wintringham cut that to 3.8%.[2]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unionist | David King Murray | 11,620 | 51.9 | −11.0 | |
| Common Wealth | Tom Wintringham | 10,751 | 48.1 | New | |
| Majority | 869 | 3.8 | −22.0 | ||
| Turnout | 22,371 | 34.6 | −39.7 | ||
| Unionisthold | Swing | −11.0 | |||
Aftermath[edit]
A week after the by-election, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels cited Common Wealth's strong showing as evidence of a communist resurgence in Britain. Making his famous'total war' speechto an audience of Nazi loyalists in Berlin's Sportpalast, Goebbels said: "In a recent by-election for the House of Commons, the independent, that is communist, candidate got 10,741 of the 22,371 votes cast. This was in a district that had formerly been a conservative stronghold. Within a short time, 10,000 voters, nearly half, had been lost to the communists. That is proof that the Bolshevist danger exists in England [sic] too, and that it will not go away simply because it is ignored."
King Murray held the seat only until the post-wargeneral election in July 1945,when he stood down to be aSenator of the College of Justiceand aLord of Session.
Wintringham stood inAldershotat the 1945 general election, but without success. His wifeKittycontested Midlothian and Peebles in 1945, but won only 6.4% of the votes and lost herdeposit.[2]
References[edit]
- ^Department of Information Services (9 June 2009)."Appointments to the Chiltern Hundreds and Manor of Northstead Stewardships since 1850"(PDF).House of Commons Library.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 15 June 2010.Retrieved30 November2009.
- ^abcdCraig, F. W. S.(1983) [1969].British parliamentary election results 1918–1949(3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 638.ISBN0-900178-06-X.
- ^"No. 35907".The London Gazette.16 February 1943. p. 827.
- ^Whitaker's Almanack, 1944