The Shipley 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 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 Shipley on 6 November 1930.

Vacancy

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

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 ...

MP, William Mackinder on 8 September 1930. He had been MP here since winning the seat from the Liberal Party in 1923.

Election history

The result at the last General election was

Candidates

The constituency Labour party selected as their candidate to defend the seat

William Albert Robinson William Albert Robinson (1877 – 31 December 1949) was a British Labour Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for St Helens from his election at the 1935 general election until the 1945 election. Career Robinson had ...

from Liverpool. He had contested Liverpool Exchange at the 1929 general election. He was the political secretary of the

National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers The National Union of Distributive and Allied Workers (NUDAW) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. History The union was founded in 1921, when the Amalgamated Union of Co-operative Employees merged with the National Union of Warehouse and ...

. The local Conservative Association chose as their candidate, 42-year-old James Horace Lockwood. He was a strong advocate of safeguarding for the textile industry. He had not stood for parliament before. The local Liberals put forward as their candidate, Arthur Davy. He had contested Shipley for the Liberal party at the 1922 general election when he polled 22% of the vote, finishing third behind the victorious National Liberal candidate. The Communist party decided to intervene in the election and fielded 49-year-old Willie Gallacher from Scotland. He had previously stood at

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

in 1922 and 1923 and West Fife in 1929.

Campaign

Polling day was set for 6 November 1930, nearly two months after the death of the previous MP, allowing for an unusually long campaign.

Result

The Conservative party, which had never before won Shipley, gained the seat from Labour;

Aftermath

Lockwood was re-elected at the 1931 general election, but the local Conservative Association did not re-adopt him as their candidate for the 1935 election. He stood instead as an Independent Conservative, but lost his seat, finishing last of 4 candidates with only 13.5% of the votes. Robinson challenged again in 1931 before being elected for St Helens in 1935. Gallacher returned to Scotland and was eventually elected to represent West Fife in 1935. Davy did not stand again. The result at the following General election;

References

{{By-elections to the 35th UK Parliament 1930 elections in the United Kingdom 1930 in England November 1930 events Shipley, West Yorkshire By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Bradford constituencies 1930s in Yorkshire