The Northampton by-election was a parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

held 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

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

on 1 April 1920.

Vacancy

The by-election was caused by the appointment of the sitting

Coalition Liberal The Coalition Coupon was a letter sent to parliamentary candidates at the 1918 United Kingdom general election, endorsing them as official representatives of the Coalition Government. The 1918 election took place in the heady atmosphere of victo ...

MP,

Charles McCurdy Charles Albert McCurdy (13 March 1870 – 10 November 1941) was a British Liberal Member of Parliament and minister in the Lloyd George Coalition Government. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1920. Background McCurdy was educated at ...

Minister of Food Control The Minister of Food Control (1916–1921) and the Minister of Food (1939–1958) were British government ministerial posts separated from that of the Minister of Agriculture. In the Great War the Ministry sponsored a network of canteens known as ...

. Under the Parliamentary rules of the day, McCurdy was required to resign his seat and fight a by-election.

Candidates

Liberals

The

Liberals agreed to support McCurdy, although the mood in the association was reported as being strongly in favour of the maintenance of the Liberal Party as an independent political force and wary of any moves which might involve fusion with the Coalition Conservatives or the creation of a Centre Party.

Conservatives

The Unionists agreed not to run a candidate against McCurdy in view of their party’s role in the

Coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

David Lloyd George David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...

and the need to support Lloyd George “as the man who had guided the ship of state through the years of war into the calmer waters of peace”.

Labour

The Labour Party chose as their candidate Mrs

Margaret Bondfield Margaret Grace Bondfield (17 March 1873 – 16 June 1953) was a British Labour Party politician, trade unionist and women's rights activist. She became the first female cabinet minister, and the first woman to be a privy counsellor in th ...

. Mrs Bondfield was originally a textiles worker who became a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

official for the Shop Assistants' Union. She was also a founder-member and an officer of the Women's Labour League. She went on to become one of the first women elected to Parliament for Labour and the Britain’s first female Cabinet Minister.

Issues

Given Mc Curdy’s appointment the price of food was an early campaign issue with Labour attacking the government for high prices and McCurdy defending the actions of the Coalition in setting up a committee to investigate the price of food and the level of profits in the industry. However McCurdy was able to counter Labour criticism by reminding voters that this was not an issue which the Parliamentary Labour Party had raised at all during 1919 and the policy of the government to use regulation to maintain and check prices was essentially the same approach that Labour had adopted. In her election address, Mrs Bondfield declared her support of a

Capital levy A capital levy is a tax on capital rather than income, collected once, rather than repeatedly (regular collection would make it a wealth tax). For example, a capital levy of 30% will see an individual or business with a net worth of $100,000 pay a ...

on accumulated wealth, as opposed to

indirect taxation An indirect tax (such as sales tax, per unit tax, value added tax (VAT), or goods and services tax (GST), excise, consumption tax, tariff) is a tax that is levied upon goods and services before they reach the customer who ultimately pays the i ...

, and the appointment of an International Economic Council to apportion supplies and credits according to need. She blamed British support for the White movement in the

Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...

for the high price of bread. She also supported the right of the Irish people to

self-determination The right of a people to self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international law (commonly regarded as a ''jus cogens'' rule), binding, as such, on the United Nations as authoritative interpretation of the Charter's norms. It stat ...

and

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

from Britain. In his election address, issued on 27 March 1920, McCurdy dealt exclusively with questions of food control and profiteering. He linked his appointment as Food Minister and the measures the government were taking with the issue of high prices. If he were re-elected, he argued, it would be a blow against the exploitation of the consumer and against the profiteer. In view of his personal commitment to the job, Labour was finding it hard to paint McCurdy as a friend of the profit-mongers.

The result

McCurdy held his seat with a reduced majority (down to 3,371 from 7,275 at the 1918 general election and a reduced percentage of the poll (down to 55.6% from 62.7%). Labour had campaigned strongly. They had anticipated the appointment of McCurdy as a Minister and had adopted Mrs Bondfield in good time to begin nursing the constituency. They were well organised if some commentators felt their candidate’s sex was a disadvantage to their electoral prospects. The by-election at Camberwell North West held on the previous day had also resulted in a Coalition Liberal hold by a newly appointed minister,

Thomas James Macnamara Thomas James Macnamara Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (23 August 1861 – 3 December 1931) was a British teacher, educationalist and radical Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. Biography Macnamara was born in Montreal, ...

against the challenge of a female Labour candidate, Miss

Susan Lawrence Arabella Susan Lawrence (12 August 1871 – 24 October 1947) was a British Labour Party politician, one of the earliest female Labour MPs. Early life Lawrence was the youngest daughter of Nathaniel Tertius Lawrence, a wealthy solicitor, and ...

. Although Lawrence was to go on to gain election to Parliament later and Mrs Bondfield's persistence in Northampton paid off at the 1923 election, the failure of two women candidates in by-elections at the same time was a setback to the adoption of female candidates. The result was also good news for Lloyd George who was pleased to see his newly appointed ministers being returned successfully to Parliament. By-election results early in the life of the government had not gone so well and Northampton and other results were regarded as something of a revival in government fortunes. The results also encouraged the Coalition Liberals to believe that any revival of Asquithian Liberalism was a mirage.

K O Morgan Kenneth Owen Morgan, Baron Morgan, (born 16 May 1934) is a Welsh historian and author, known especially for his writings on modern British history and politics and on Welsh history. He is a regular reviewer and broadcaster on radio and televis ...

, ''Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918-1922''; OUP 1979 p202 However, as we have seen the failure of the Independent Liberals to contest Northampton was not solely a question of weakness of organisation or spirit. There was genuine confusion and soul-searching in the party over the Asquith-Lloyd George split and McCurdy was to face an Independent Liberal opponent at the

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 ...

as well as Labour.

The votes

References

{{By-elections to the 31st UK Parliament 1920 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Northamptonshire constituencies 1920 in England Politics of Northampton Ministerial by-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom 20th century in Northamptonshire April 1920 events