The Bow and Bromley by-election was a by-election held on 26 November 1912 for the

British House of Commons 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 in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

constituency of Bow and Bromley. It was triggered when the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), George Lansbury, accepted the post of

Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds Appointment to the position of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds is a procedural device to allow Members of Parliament to resignation from the British House of Commons, resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. S ...

as a technical measure enabling him to leave Parliament.

Background

Bow and Bromley was a

marginal constituency A marginal seat or swing seat is a constituency held with a small majority in a legislative election, generally one conducted under a single-winner voting system. In Canada, they may be known as target ridings. The opposite is a safe seat. Th ...

. It had been held by the Liberal Party from 1906 until 1910 and by the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

from 1895 until 1906 and during 1910. At the general election of December 1910, Lansbury had gained the seat for Labour with a majority of 11.1%. Lansbury had become a strong supporter of women's suffrage. Unusually among male politicians of the time, he supported the actions of militant

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

s such as the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).John Shepherd,
A Life on the Left : George Lansbury (1859—1940) : a Case Study in Recent Labour Biography
'' While support for women's suffrage was official Labour policy, Lansbury felt that this support was lukewarm, and so in October 1912 he travelled to Boulogne-sur-Mer with

Emmeline Pankhurst Emmeline Pankhurst ('' née'' Goulden; 15 July 1858 – 14 June 1928) was an English political activist who organised the UK suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote. In 1999, ''Time'' named her as one of the 100 Most Impo ...

, where he met WSPU leader

Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bord ...

. George Dangerfield, '' The Strange Death of Liberal England''

Campaign

Lansbury decided to resign his seat and contest the resulting by-election on a platform of "Votes for Women". He was unable to gain official Labour Party support, and instead ran as the "Women's Suffrage and Socialist" candidate. He was supported by his Constituency Labour Party (CLP), including J. H. Banks and Edgar Lansbury, by some prominent Labour figures including Keir Hardie and Philip Snowden, by Liberal Party MP Josiah Wedgwood and by journalist

H. N. Brailsford Henry Noel Brailsford (25 December 1873 – 23 March 1958) was the most prolific British left-wing journalist of the first half of the 20th century. A founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1907, he resigned from his job a ...

. Millicent Fawcett, leader of the WSPU's rival the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies also campaigned for Lansbury. The WSPU were very active in supporting Lansbury in the by-election, but some tensions arose between them and the CLP. The WSPU were adamant that their campaign would not be controlled by a male-led organisation, while the local activists regarded them as outsiders. This in particular created problems on polling day, when WSPU cars were not made available to carry people to vote. Sylvia Pankhurst's branch of the WSPU was on the same road as Lansbury's campaign headquarters. She supported his campaign, but was critical of him for standing prematurely, against counsel from the labour movement, and for prioritising women's suffrage above all other issues.Mary Davis, ''Sylvia Pankhurst: A Life in Radical Politics'' Lansbury's manifesto did include other measures, including opposition to the National Insurance Bill and an explanation of his differences with the Labour leadership. The campaign was widely covered by the official Labour newspaper the '' Daily Citizen'' and strongly supported by Lansbury's own recently launched paper the ''

Daily Herald Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

''. The Liberal Party's leadership opposed the militant activities of the WSPU by imprisoning its members. When some suffragettes went on hunger strike, it authorised force feeding. Lansbury strongly disagreed with this, and in Parliament in the summer of 1912, he told

H. H. Asquith Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, (12 September 1852 – 15 February 1928), generally known as H. H. Asquith, was a British statesman and Liberal Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom f ...

, the Liberal Prime Minister "You will go down in history as the man who tortured innocent women. You ought to be driven from public life." Despite this, the Liberals did not stand a candidate in the by-election. The Labour Party also declined to stand an official candidate, so Lansbury's only opponent was

Reginald Blair Sir Reginald Blair, 1st Baronet (8 November 1881 – 18 September 1962) was a British politician. He served as a Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) from 1912 to 1922, and from 1935 to 1945. Early life Blair was born in Glasgow in 1881. He wa ...

of the

. Blair was supported by the Primrose League and the National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage and campaigned under slogans including "Women Do Not Want Votes".

Result

Blair took the seat from Lansbury with a majority of over 700 votes. Lansbury believed that his resignation had permanently alienated some of his constituents, and subsequently declared "Never Resign!"

Aftermath

The Bow & Bromley Independent Labour Party disintegrated.''Socialists, Liberals and Labour. The Struggle for London, 1885–1914'' by Paul Thomson. (London, 1967), pp. 229–30). Reginald Blair entered parliament to speak and vote on a number of issues, including voting against granting the vote to women in 1917. He held the seat until

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

, when Lansbury retook it. Lansbury meanwhile promoted socialism in the ''Daily Herald'' and led the Poplar Rates Rebellion of 1921. The WSPU moved away from Lansbury and became increasingly anti-socialist, while this was a decisive point in Sylvia Pankhurst's split from her family towards communism. The following year, her section of the WSPU became the

East London Federation of Suffragettes The Workers' Socialist Federation was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom, led by Sylvia Pankhurst. Under many different names, it gradually broadened its politics from a focus on women's suffrage to eventually become a left com ...

References

External links