1909 High Peak by-election

The High Peak 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.

1909 High Peak by-election
22 July 1909
 
Candidate Partington Profumo
Party Liberal Conservative
Popular vote 5,619 5,272
Percentage 51.5 48.4
MP before election

Oswald Partington
Liberal

 Subsequent MP

Oswald Partington
Liberal

Vacancy

Oswald Partington had been Liberal MP for the seat of High Peak since the 1900 general election. On 5 July 1909, he was appointed as a Junior Lord of the Treasury, which meant, in accordance with the times, that he was required to resign his seat and seek re-election to parliament.

Electoral history

The seat had been Liberal since Partington gained it from the Conservatives in 1900. He easily held the seat at the last election, with an increased majority;

Partington
General election January 1906[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Oswald Partington 5,450 53.9
Conservative Albert Profumo 4,662 46.1
Majority 788 7.8 +6.0
Turnout 90.7 +4.1
Liberal hold Swing

Candidates

The local Liberal Association re-selected 37-year-old Oswald Partington to defend the seat. The Conservatives retained 30-year-old barrister Albert Profumo as their candidate. He had unsuccessfully tried to re-gain the seat from Partington at the last election.[2]

Campaign
The Manager of the local Kinder Print Works shown with car depicting a Conservative 'Vote Profumo' poster

Polling Day was fixed for 22 July, allowing for a short 17-day campaign.

On 9 July the Liberals retained a by-election in Cleveland, Yorkshire. On 15 July, the Liberals retained a by-election in nearby Mid Derbyshire. On 20 July, the Liberals retained a by-election in Dumfries Burghs.[1]

The major incident of the campaign was Partington's challenge to fight a reporter of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. The presses of that paper had been used to print the High Peak Elector, a campaign newspaper published by the Conservatives, which Partington claimed had slighted his wife, Clara.[3]

Result

The Liberals held the seat and managed a slightly increased majority;

High Peak by-election, 1909[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Oswald Partington 5,619 51.5 -2.3
Conservative Albert Profumo 5,272 48.4 +2.3
Majority 347 3.2 -4.6
Turnout 91.1
Liberal hold Swing -2.3

Aftermath

Partington retained the seat at the following General Election;

General election January 1910[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Liberal Oswald Partington 5,912 50.5 -1.1
Conservative Samuel Hill-Wood 5,806 49.5 +1.1
Majority 1.0 -2.2
Turnout 94.4 +3.3
Liberal hold Swing -1.1
gollark: However, buffalo do not buffalo unless the Buffalo buffalo do buffalo.
gollark: See <#457999277311131649>; they let it use arbitrary nicknames.
gollark: Too bad, gibson, rotate apioforms perpendicular to apiolectromagnetic fields.
gollark: Just encolour them.
gollark: In what sense is this "your mind rn"?

References
  1. British parliamentary election results 1885–1918
  2. Who's Who
  3. A Liberal Chronicle: Journals and Papers of J.A. Pease, 1st Lord Gainford, 1908–1910
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.