The 1942 Spennymoor by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 21 July 1942 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 An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

Spennymoor Spennymoor is a town and civil parish in County Durham (district), County Durham, England. It is south of the River Wear and is south of Durham, England, Durham. The civil parish includes the villages of Kirk Merrington, Middlestone Moor, Byers ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

. The seat had become vacant when the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP)

Joseph Batey Joseph Batey (4 March 1867 – 21 February 1949) was a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. Batey became a coal miner, before winning election as a checkweighman, and then becoming a full-time official for the Durham Miners' Associat ...

had resigned from the House of Commons on 6 July 1942, by the procedural device of accepting the post of

Steward of the Manor of Northstead The office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead functions as a procedural device to allow a member of Parliament (MP) to resign from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. As members of the House of Commons are forbidden ...

. Batey had held the seat since the 1922 general election.

Candidates

The Labour party selected as its candidate the 54-year-old James Dixon Murray. The parties in the war-time Coalition Government had agreed not to contest vacancies in seats held by other coalition parties, but other by-elections had been contested by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

candidates or those from minor parties. (The most recent was Maldon in June 1940, where an independent Labour candidate won what had previously been a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

for the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

s).

Results

No other candidates were nominated in Spennymoor, so Murray was returned unopposed. He held the Spennymoor seat until the constituency's abolition for the 1950 general election.

Votes

References

* * 1942 elections in the United Kingdom 1942 in England 20th century in County Durham

Unopposed by-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom (need citation) {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub

Candidates

Results

Votes

See also

References