1906 Huddersfield by-election

The Huddersfield by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

1906 Huddersfield by-election
28 November 1906
 
Candidate Sherwell Williams Fraser
Party Liberal Labour Conservative
Popular vote 5,762 5,422 4,844
Percentage 36.0 33.8 30.2
MP before election

Sir James Woodhouse
Liberal

 Subsequent MP

Arthur Sherwell
Liberal

Vacancy

Sir James Woodhouse had been Liberal MP here since the 1895 General Election. He resigned upon his appointment as the Rail and Canal Traffic Commissioner.

Electoral history

The seat had been Liberal since Woodhouse re-gained it in 1895. It had been a marginal seat but Woodhouse had won with a bit to spare in 1895 and 1900. They narrowly held the seat at the last election, following the intervention of a labour candidate;

Woodhouse
General Election 1906 Huddersfield[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal James Woodhouse 6,302 38.2 −15.4
Labour Repr. Cmte. T. Russell Williams 5,813 35.2 New
Conservative John Foster Fraser 4,391 26.6 −19.8
Majority 489 3.0 −4.2
Turnout 16,506 94.0 +6.2
Registered electors 17,568
Liberal hold Swing +2.2

Candidates

The local Liberal Association selected 43 year-old temperance campaigner Arthur Sherwell to defend the seat. The Conservatives retained 38 year old journalist John Foster Fraser as their candidate. 37 year old Thomas Russell Williams who had stood as a candidate of the Labour Representation Committee at the general election also re-stood, but this time as the candidate of the Labour Party. Although Huddesfield raised, he worked as a Mill manager in Keighley.[2]

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for the 28 November 1906. The Conservative and Labour challengers started with an advantage as their names were known from having contested the constituency nine months earlier. The Liberals had received a setback, losing Cockermouth to the Conservatives in a by-election three months earlier. Liberal candidates in other by-elections had also seen their vote share fall from its general election high-point. In Huddersfield, since the general election, the Liberal association had undergone re-organisation and had substantially increased its membership. Williams the Labour candidate was regarded as a quasi-Marxist socialist and struggled to relate his stances to local trade unionists who wanted firm policy commitments from him.[2] Sherwell, the Liberal candidate supported giving women the vote. Despite this, the Women's Social and Political Union set up a local campaign office to campaign against him.[3]

Result

The Liberals held the seat with a slightly reduced majority;

Huddersfield by-election, 1906[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Arthur Sherwell 5,762 36.0 -2.2
Labour T. Russell Williams 5,422 33.8 -1.4
Conservative John Foster Fraser 4,844 30.2 +3.6
Majority 340 2.2 -0.8
Turnout 16,028 91.2 -2.8
Liberal hold Swing -0.4

Aftermath

The Labour party decided that after two contests, Williams was not a good candidate, so changed him for another for the next election, only to see their share of the vote drop further. The Huddersfield Liberals were able stifle the growth of the Labour Party up to the First World War.[2]

General Election January 1910 Huddersfield[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Arthur Sherwell 7,158 39.8 +3.8
Labour Harry Snell 5,686 31.6 −2.2
Conservative Harold Smith 5,153 28.6 -1.6
Majority 1,472 8.2 +5.2
Turnout 17,997 94.6 +0.6
Registered electors 19,021
Liberal hold Swing +2.6

References
  1. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
  2. Liberalism and the Rise of Labour 1890-1918 by Keith Laybourn, Jack Reynolds
  3. The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press by Sarah Pedersen
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