The 1919 Spen Valley by-election was held on 20 December 1919. The by-election was held after the death of the incumbent Coalition Liberal MP, Thomas Whittaker. It was won by the Labour candidate, Tom Myers, who had contested the constituency at the 1918 general election. The 1918 contest had been a straight fight between Whittaker and Myers, and had seen the former emerge victorious with a majority of 2,156 votes (11.2% of votes cast). The poll came at the same time as a serious split in the Liberal Party over continuing support for the coalition government: Colonel Bryan Fairfax was nominated as the Coalition Liberal candidate, and

Sir John Simon John Allsebrook Simon, 1st Viscount Simon, (28 February 1873 – 11 January 1954), was a British politician who held senior Cabinet posts from the beginning of the First World War to the end of the Second World War. He is one of only three peop ...

stood as an Independent Liberal. The poll was held on 20 December 1919, but the votes were not counted until 3 January 1920. The result was seen as sensational,Previewing the 1 July 2021 by-elections (Parliamentary Special)
Britainelects with '' The Times'' describing it as a "political event of great significance", with voters deserting the government candidate in "a humiliation which cannot be explained away". In the view of

Maurice Cowling Maurice John Cowling (6 September 1926 – 24 August 2005) was a British historian and a Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge. Early life Cowling was born in West Norwood, South London, son of Reginald Frederick Cowling (1901–1962), a patent agent ...

, Simon's defeat by Labour marked the point at which Labour began to be seen as a serious threat by the older parties.

Aftermath

At the 1922 general election, Simon contested the seat as the sole Liberal candidate, although the Conservatives now fielded a candidate. However Simon emerged victorious with a majority of 787 votes over Myers. Myers would fight the seat again in

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

and

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China hol ...

, but Simon increased his majority on both occasions, most significantly to over 4,000 votes in 1924 when no Conservative opposed him. In the 1930s Simon broke from the Liberal Party, eventually forming his own Liberal National Party which worked in close alliance with the Conservatives. He would hold the Spen Valley seat until his elevation to the peerage in 1940, prompting the

1940 Spen Valley by-election The 1940 Spen Valley by-election was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Spen Valley on 1 June 1940. The seat had become vacant when the Liberal National Member of Parliament Sir John Simon, had been elevated to t ...

References

Spen Valley by-election Elections in Kirklees Elections in Calderdale Spen Valley by-election Spen Valley by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in West Yorkshire constituencies 1910s in Yorkshire {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub