Burslem (UK Parliament constituency)

Burslem was a borough constituency in Stoke-on-Trent which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.

For other uses, see Burslem (disambiguation).

Burslem
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Stoke-on-Trent North
Created from	Leek

Boundaries

The County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent wards numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election. From 1885-1918 the Stoke-on-Trent area had been divided into two constituencies: Stoke and Hanley. In 1918, the area was divided into three constituencies: Stoke, Hanley and a new seat called Burslem. Burslem was thus made up from part of the former Stoke seat and part of Hanley.

History

Until 1918, both Stoke and Hanley had been represented by Liberal MPs. The Liberal Party in the area was heavily influenced by support for radical land reform policies such as Site Value Rating and the Single Tax policy. These policies were advocated by R.L. Outhwaite, the MP for Hanley and Josiah Wedgwood, the MP for neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme. After 1918, they both left the Liberal Party and joined the Labour Party. There they influenced Andrew MacLaren. who was for many years the standard-bearer for the Labour Party and an advocate of Site Value Rating. At the 1931 general election, the supporters of land reform were split when MacLaren was opposed by a candidate who advocated a Single Tax policy. This split contributed to MacLaren's defeat. He returned to Parliament in 1935, but left the Labour Party in 1943 and sought re-election as an Independent.

When Outhwaite and Wedgwood left the Liberal Party in 1919, those who remained made the Liberal Party less radical. For the next 20 years the Liberal Party and the Unionist Party experimented with different approaches to electoral politics, often coming together to support the same candidate, as in 1922, 1924, 1931 and 1935.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Samuel Finney	Labour
	1922	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
	1923	William Edward Robinson	Liberal
	1924	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
	1931	William Allen	Liberal National
	1935	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
	1945	Albert Davies	Labour
	1950	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Burslem[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Samuel Finney	7,474	44.3	n/a
C	Unionist	Sampson Walker	6,301	37.3	n/a
	Liberal	Walter Essex	3,108	18.4	n/a
Majority			1,173	7.0	n/a
Turnout			16,883	56.5	n/a
Registered electors			29,866
	Labour win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Burslem[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	11,872	50.4	+6.1
	National Liberal	Sydney Malkin	11,667	49.6	n/a
Majority			205	0.8	−6.2
Turnout			23,539	78.2	+21.7
Registered electors			30,119
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

General election 1923: Burslem[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	William Edward Robinson	12,543	50.1	+0.5
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	12,480	49.9	−0.5
Majority			63	0.2	n/a
Turnout			25,023	82.4	+4.2
Registered electors			30,372
	Liberal gain from Labour		Swing	+0.5

General election 1924: Burslem[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	14,361	51.1	+1.2
	Constitutionalist	William Allen	13,755	48.9	n/a
Majority			606	2.2	n/a
Turnout			28,116	88.1	+5.7
Registered electors			31,903
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	n/a

General election 1929: Burslem [5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	20,288	58.6	+7.5
	Unionist	Alfred P. Harrison	7,440	21.6	n/a
	Liberal	James Joy	6,815	19.8	n/a
Majority			12,788	37.0	+34.8
Turnout			34,483	82.5	−5.6
Registered electors			41,782
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Burslem[6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	National	William Allen	18,647	52.8	n/a
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	16,248	46.0	-12.6
	Commonwealth Land	Arthur Rowland-Entwhistle	401	1.1	n/a
Majority			2,399	6.8	n/a
Turnout			35,296	82.5	0.0
	National gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Burslem[7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Andrew MacLaren	18,030	54.2	+8.4
	Liberal National	William Allen	15,227	45.8	-7.0
Majority			2,803	8.4	+1.6
Turnout			33,257	77.9	-4.6
	Labour gain from National		Swing	+7.7

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939/40

Another General Election was scheduled to take place before the end of 1940. In 1939 the parties were preparing for an election, and by the end of that year, the following candidates had been selected:

• Labour: Andrew MacLaren

General election 1945: Burslem[8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Albert Davies	20,044	60.5	+6.3
	Liberal National	Frederic Bennett	9,877	29.8	-16.0
	Independent Labour	Andrew MacLaren	3,223	9.7	-44.5
Majority			10,167	30.7	+22.3
Turnout				78.7	+0.8
Registered electors			42,121
	Labour hold		Swing	+11.1

References

1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
2. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
3. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
5. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
6. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
7. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig
8. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 6)