The 1923 Willesden East 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 ...

for the British House of Commons constituency of Willesden East held on 3 March 1923. The constituency was a large one extending from Kilburn in the south to the Welsh Harp and on to

Neasden Neasden is a suburban area in northwest London, England. It is located around the centre of the London Borough of Brent and is within the NW2 ( Cricklewood) and NW10 (Willesden) postal districts. Neasden is near Wembley Stadium, the Welsh Har ...

Vacancy

The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Unionist MP, Sir Harry Mallaby-Deeley. Mallaby-Deeley had been MP for Willesden East since the 1918 general election. Despite the protestations of ill-health which Mallaby-Deeley cited to justify his standing down from Parliament, he lived for another 14 years during which he carried on a substantial business career. The strong likelihood is that Mallaby-Deeley was asked to stand aside and cause a by-election as a route back into Parliament for the Hon. G.F.Stanley,

Electoral history

At the previous General Election, the constituency had become a Unionist/Liberal marginal;

Candidates

*The Unionist candidate was Hon. George Stanley, the sixth son of the

Earl of Derby Earl of Derby ( ) is a title in the Peerage of England. The title was first adopted by Robert de Ferrers, 1st Earl of Derby, under a creation of 1139. It continued with the Ferrers family until the 6th Earl forfeited his property toward the en ...

. Stanley had been a soldier serving in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

and during the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He had been Unionist MP for Preston from 1910 to 1922. Although out of Parliament, Stanley was still a

government minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...

being

Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department This article lists past and present Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State serving the Home Secretary of the United Kingdom at the Home Office. Non-permanent and parliamentary under-secretaries, 1782–present *April 1782: Evan Nepean *April 1 ...

. *The Liberals re-selected

Harcourt Johnstone Harcourt Johnstone (19 May 18951 March 1945), nicknamed Crinks, was a British Liberal Party politician. Early life and education Johnstone was born in London in 1895, the son of the Hon. Sir Alan Johnstone, a British diplomat, and his American ...

, 27-year-old son of a British diplomat who had also served in the War and who had fought Willesden East at the 1922 general election losing by 1,314 votes to Mallaby-Deeley. *There had been a Labour candidate at the 1918 general election but the party had not fought in 1922. It was reported however that Labour was seriously considering putting up a candidate for the by-election and the name of Alfred Smith, the President of the Licensed Vehicle Workers Association and a previous Labour candidate at Dorset East and at West Leyton was mentioned. Smith later gained election to the House of Commons as Labour MP for Sunderland in

1929 This year marked the end of a period known in American history as the Roaring Twenties after the Wall Street Crash of 1929 ushered in a worldwide Great Depression. In the Americas, an agreement was brokered to end the Cristero War, a Catholic ...

. In the end Labour decided not to contest the election. *At one point it seemed possible that a candidate standing under the Anti-Waste banner would be nominated. A few days before close of nominations, posters bearing the name of W. Lennard appeared in the constituency as an Anti-Waste and Independent Unionist. The bills warned the electorate that the issue was Anti-Waste or bankruptcy. Lennard indicated that he would announce on 20 February if he intended to stand but despite the appearance of the posters and the decision of the Anti-Waste League to put up candidates at a number of by-elections during this time, most notably James Erskine's victory at the by-election at

Westminster St George's Westminster St George's, originally named St George's, Hanover Square, was a parliamentary constituency in Central London. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by th ...

on 7 June 1921, Lennard was not nominated in Willesden East and the contest was therefore a straight fight between Stanley and Johnstone.

Campaign

Controversially in a constituency where over six thousand electors were thought to be

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

, polling day was fixed for a Saturday. Housing was featuring strongly as an issue of importance at this time. In the by-election at

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It h ...

being held on the same day as Willesden East, the Unionist candidate was Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen. Griffth-Boscawen had lost his seat at

Taunton Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England, with a 2011 population of 69,570. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, Taunton Castle, which later became a priory. The Normans built a castle owned by the ...

at the general election of November 1922 but accepted Bonar Law’s offer to remain in the government as

Minister of Health A health minister is the member of a country's government typically responsible for protecting and promoting public health and providing welfare and other social security services. Some governments have separate ministers for mental health. Coun ...

while he tried to find a seat to get back into Parliament. His main task as minister was to produce a

Bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

on local government rating but this proved highly controversial and the issue was a magnet for a whole range of problems associated with housing, including the failure of the government to increase the number of houses being built, to be raised at Mitcham and elsewhere, including to Johnstone’s advantage at Willesden. It was reported that the loss of the by-election would represent a blow for the Unionist government, although it was too early after the general election to see the results as a definitive verdict on Bonar Law’s administration.

Result

The result was a gain for the Liberal Party from the Unionists with Johnstone gaining 60% of the poll and a majority of 5,176 over Stanley. The Liberal victory was described by

Austen Chamberlain Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain (16 October 1863 – 16 March 1937) was a British statesman, son of Joseph Chamberlain and older half-brother of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (twice) and was briefly ...

as a “smash” and a bad omen for the by-election at

being held on the same day, which the Unionists also lost, this time to Labour. Clearly the absence of a Labour candidate at Willesden meant the Liberals were able to present Johnstone as the only progressive and anti-

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...

candidate. This tactical advantage was underscored by an unproved allegation against Stanley that he or his supporters had tried to bribe a Labour man into standing as a candidate for the purpose of splitting the Liberal vote. The loss of Willesden by such a large majority was unexpected

Aftermath

It was hard to discern Willesden as part of any pattern of political success for the Liberal Party. Cook and Ramsden in their survey of British by-elections comment that none of the by-elections in the 1922-1923 Parliament pointed to the outcome of Stanley Baldwin’s

Tariff reform The Tariff Reform League (TRL) was a protectionist British pressure group formed in 1903 to protest against what they considered to be unfair foreign imports and to advocate Imperial Preference to protect British industry from foreign competitio ...

general election of 6 December 1923.Chris Cook & John Ramsden, ''By-elections in British politics''; UCL Press, 1997 p40 At that election, Johnstone narrowly held the seat despite the intervention of a Labour party candidate.