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The 1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 November 1919[1] for the British House of Commons constituency of Sutton in the city of Plymouth, Devon.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Waldorf Astor, succeeded the peerage as the second Viscount Astor on the death of his father on 18 October 1919.
Astor had held the seat since the 1918 general election, and its predecessor Plymouth since the December 1910 general election.
Candidates
- The Conservative Party selected as its candidate Astor's wife Nancy, Lady Astor. She was also the candidate of the Coalition Government.
- The Asquithian Liberals stood Isaac Foot, who had served on Plymouth City Council and had previously contested Totnes and Bodmin.
- W. T. Gay stood for Labour, having done so in the 1918 election. Thomas William Mercer again served as his agent.[2]
Result
Lady Astor retained the seat. She became the first woman to take up her seat in the Commons (the first woman to be elected, Countess Markievicz, the Sinn Féin MP for Dublin St Patrick's, refused to take her seat).
Votes
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | Nancy Astor | 14,495 | 51.9 | -14.0 |
| Labour | William Thomas Gay | 9,292 | 33.3 | +12.7 | |
| Liberal | Isaac Foot | 4,139 | 14.8 | +1.3 | |
| Majority | 5,203 | 18.6 | -26.7 | ||
| Turnout | 27,926 | ||||
| Unionist hold | Swing | -13.3 | |||
| C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | Waldorf Astor | 17,091 | 65.9 | |
| Labour | William Thomas Gay | 5,334 | 20.6 | ||
| Liberal | Sidney Ransom | 3,488 | 13.5 | ||
| Majority | 11,757 | 45.3 | |||
| Turnout | 25,913 | 59.6 | |||
| Unionist win (new seat) | |||||
| C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
See also
References
- Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)
- ^ "Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
- ^ Joyce Bellamy, "Mercer, Thomas William (1884-1947)", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.I, pp.238-239
This page was last edited on 2 March 2024, at 08:52