Westminster St George's by-election, 1931
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The Westminster St. George's by-election, 1931 was a parliamentary by-election held on 19 March 1931 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 Westminster St. George's.


Vacancy and electoral history

The seat had become vacant on 14 February when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Sir Laming Worthington-Evans, died aged 62. He had sat for the constituency since the 1929 general election, having previously been MP for Colchester since
1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...
; he had served in the
cabinets A cabinet is a body of high-ranking state officials, typically consisting of the executive branch's top leaders. Members of a cabinet are usually called cabinet ministers or secretaries. The function of a cabinet varies: in some countrie ...
of David Lloyd George and
Stanley Baldwin Stanley Baldwin, 1st Earl Baldwin of Bewdley, (3 August 186714 December 1947) was a British Conservative Party politician who dominated the government of the United Kingdom between the world wars, serving as prime minister on three occasions, ...
during the 1920s.


Background

The by-election took place during a campaign, led by the press magnates
Lord Beaverbrook William Maxwell Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (25 May 1879 – 9 June 1964), generally known as Lord Beaverbrook, was a Canadian-British newspaper publisher and backstage politician who was an influential figure in British media and politics o ...
and
Lord Rothermere Viscount Rothermere, of Hemsted in the county of Kent, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1919 for the press lord Harold Harmsworth, 1st Baron Harmsworth. He had already been created a baronet, of Horsey in th ...
, to remove Stanley Baldwin as
Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...
. The vehicles for their campaign were the United Empire Party and the
Empire Free Trade Crusade The Empire Free Trade Crusade was a political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Lord Beaverbrook in July 1929 to press for the British Empire to become a free trade bloc. The group was founded to oppose both the Labour minority go ...
. The campaign had had some success. The Conservative Central Office had withdrawn support for its own candidate at the
1929 Twickenham by-election The 1929 Twickenham by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 8 August 1929 for the British House of Commons constituency of Twickenham in Middlesex. Vacancy The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Pa ...
, who supported the Empire Free Trade policy. The UEP had won the
1930 Paddington South by-election The 1930 Paddington South by-election was held on 30 October 1930. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Conservative MP, Commodore Douglas King. It was won by the Empire Free Trade Crusade candidate Ernest Taylor. On ...
from the Conservatives. The split in the right-wing vote between Conservative and UEP candidates at the Islington East by-election in February 1931 had allowed
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 ...
to hold a seat they had been expected to lose.
David Cannadine Sir David Nicholas Cannadine (born 7 September 1950) is a British author and historian who specialises in modern history, Britain and the history of business and philanthropy. He is currently the Dodge Professor of History at Princeton Unive ...
has argued that due to the actions of Beaverbrook and Rothermere now Baldwin's position as leader seemed to be becoming untenable and it was anticipated that he would resign as Conservative Party leader.


Candidates

The industrialist Sir
Ernest Willoughby Petter Sir Ernest Willoughby Petter (26 May 1873 – 18 July 1954) was an English industrialist and unsuccessful politician. Ernest and Percival Waddams Petter (1873–1955), were identical twins born on 26 May 1873 in High Street, Yeovil, Somerse ...
announced his candidacy on 28 February as an Independent Conservative opposed to Baldwin's leadership of the Conservative Party. Petter had founded the Petters Limited engineering company from which Westland Aircraft was separated in 1915. Though he claimed to be free of party and running at the request of the electors, he was eagerly backed by the Beaverbrook and Rothermere papers, the ''
Daily Express The ''Daily Express'' is a national daily United Kingdom middle-market newspaper printed in tabloid format. Published in London, it is the flagship of Express Newspapers, owned by publisher Reach plc. It was first published as a broadsheet i ...
'' and ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''. The Conservatives originally selected John Moore-Brabazon. He withdrew on 28 February, saying he could not defend Baldwin. Baldwin, under pressure to resign as Leader of the Conservative Party, toyed with the idea of resigning his safe Worcestershire seat of Bewdley and contesting the by-election himself. On 1 March Baldwin called
Neville Chamberlain Arthur Neville Chamberlain (; 18 March 18699 November 1940) was a British politician of the Conservative Party who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from May 1937 to May 1940. He is best known for his foreign policy of appeasemen ...
to see him and the latter understood Baldwin intended to resign the leadership of the Conservative Party at once. However the same evening William Bridgeman urged Baldwin to remain as leader and suggested he contest the by-election. Further discussions with Chamberlain and other colleagues convinced him not to be the candidate, but also not to resign at least while the by-election was in progress. The eventual Conservative candidate was
Alfred Duff Cooper Alfred Duff Cooper, 1st Viscount Norwich, (22 February 1890 – 1 January 1954), known as Duff Cooper, was a British Conservative Party politician and diplomat who was also a military and political historian. First elected to Parliament in 192 ...
, who had been MP for Oldham from
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 ...
until his defeat 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 ...
. He had been Financial Secretary to the War Office from 1928 to 1929. In 1929 there had been a
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 ...
candidate for the constituency, but Labour did not contest the by-election.


Campaign

One notable speech during the campaign was by Stanley Baldwin. At the Queen's Hall on 17 March he attacked the press proprietors, uttering the often-quoted words: "What the proprietorship of those papers is aiming at is power, and power without responsibility – the prerogative of the harlot through the ages". The latter phrase had been suggested to him by his cousin Rudyard Kipling. Cannadine who has highlighted the significance of the speech in the relationship between politicians and the press argued that comparing the press with a harlot was "devastating" especially "coming from Baldwin, whose public persona was that of an honest, decent Christian gentleman of unimpeachable character and integrity." ''The Glasgow Herald'' reported that "London has never seen anything quite like" Baldwin's speech and noted that it was the most "aggressive and bellicose speech" Baldwin had ever made.


Result

Cooper won the by-election with 59.9% of the votes.


Aftermath

After the result was announced Duff Cooper said that his win had been "a great victory for the true interest of the Conservative Party" and said the lesson to be learned was that in the future the party must "stand together behind one leader". The Conservative victory at the by-election was an important factor in Baldwin's retention of the Conservative Party leadership. Following the collapse later that year of the Labour Government, the Conservatives would unite with the Prime Minister
Ramsay MacDonald James Ramsay MacDonald (; 12 October 18669 November 1937) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, the first who belonged to the Labour Party, leading minority Labour governments for nine months in 1924 ...
to form the
National Government A national government is the government of a nation. National government or National Government may also refer to: * Central government in a unitary state, or a country that does not give significant power to regional divisions * Federal governme ...
, which enjoyed a
landslide victory A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geol ...
at the polls that autumn. Cooper was unopposed at the
general election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...
later that year, and remained MP for the constituency until 1945.


See also

* Westminster St. George's constituency * List of United Kingdom by-elections * United Kingdom by-election records


References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Westminster St George's By-Election, 1931 Westminster St George's by-election Westminster St George's,1931 Westminster St George's,1931 Westminster St George's by-election Westminster St George's by-election