The 1919 Leyton West by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 1 March 1919 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, ...

of Leyton West, in the Urban District of Leyton, Essex. The constituency formed part of the

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conurbation.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant on the death of the constituency's

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

Unionist Member of Parliament (MP), Harry Wrightson on 11 February 1919. Wrightson had first been elected at the 1918 general election. Within days of the declaration of poll however, Wrightson contracted influenza, which deteriorated to pneumonia, and he died early in 1919, aged 44, six days before the new Parliament met and so was never able to take his seat.

Electoral history

Candidates

The Unionist Party selected as its candidate

James Francis Mason James Francis Mason (1861–2 April 1929) was a British Conservative politician who was the Member of Parliament for Windsor in Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a ...

, who was a director of the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

and had been MP for Windsor between

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

and the preceding General Election.

Alfred Ernest Newbould Alfred Ernest Newbould (24 October 1873 – 25 April 1952) was a British cinematographer and Liberal politician. Family and education Newbould was born in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, the son of J. J. Newbould from the nearby village of T ...

stood for the Asquithian Liberals. He had stood against Wrightson at the recent General Election, coming in second with less than half of Wrightson's votes.

Campaign

Mason's campaign sought to repeat the theme of the previous General Election, where Unionists had run solely on the glory of having won the war. Newbould's main campaign points were the abolition of conscription and a crackdown on profiteering the first policy was said to appeal to men and the second to women. Unfortunately for part of the contest he was confined to bed with a bad cold and his wife was engaged as principal canvasser on his behalf.

Result

On a turnout of 42.5%, (down from the general election turnout of 49.9%) Newbould won what was seen as an important victory for the Asquithian Liberals improving his share of the vote from 32.6% at the general election to 57.3% in the by-election. According to psephologist John Ramsden, this amounted to a swing of 24.8% and was statistically one of the worst by-election reverses of the 1918–1922 government.Chris Cook and John Ramsden, ''By-elections in British Politics''; UCL Press 1997, p16

Aftermath

At the 1922 general election, Newbould lost the seat back to the Unionists, and never got back into the House.

References

* * * ''The Times'', 15 March 1919 {{By-elections to the 31st UK Parliament Leyton West by-election Leyton West by-election Leyton West by-election Leyton West,1919 Leyton West,1919 Leyton