1951 Westhoughton by-election

UK parliamentary by-election April 2021 June 2012 The 1951 Westhoughton by-election took place on 21 June 1951. The contest followed the resignation of the sitting Labour Party Member of Parliament, Rhys Davies. In April 1951 Davies, who had held the Westhoughton constituency in south Lancashire for thirty years, announced that he would not be standing for parliament again. At the time he was Labour's longest serving MP."MP not to seek re-election", The Times, 10 April 1951, p. 7. He subsequently resigned from the Commons due to ill health, and the writ to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy was moved on 31 May."House of Commons", The Times, 1 June 1951, p. 4. At the time of Davies's resignation, the Labour Party held a slim majority of only five seats, following the 1950 general election. Davies had secured a majority of nearly 12,000 votes over the Conservatives in 1950. Nominations for the by-election closed on 12 June, and there were only two candidates: Tom Price, the forty-eight-year-old chief legal officer of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers for the Labour Party; and Frank J. Land, a thirty-eight-year-old master baker from Bolton for the Conservatives."The Westhoughton By-Election, No Hint of Third Candidate", The Times, 5 June 1951, p. 3. Price belonged to the same trades union as Davies, and had strong connections with south Lancashire. Land was a member of the Bolton Chamber of Trade, and vice-chairman of Bolton Young Conservatives. On 14 June, Winston Churchill, Conservative leader, issued a statement in support of Land and attacking the Labour government who he blamed for the fall in the value of the pound."Labour Blamed For Fall in Pound - Mr. Churchill's Message To Westhoughton", The Times, 15 June 1951, p. 7. Price campaigned on the record of the Labour government, claiming it had done a great deal to improve the life of ordinary people. Land called for an end to nationalisation of industries, claiming this led to higher prices. Both candidates supported a programme of building large numbers of council houses."Candidates' Claims at Westhoughton - By-Election Addresses", The Times, 16 June 1951, p. 3. Result Price retained the seat comfortably for the government, although with a reduced majority:"Government Retain Westhoughton, Mr. J. T. Price Elected", The Times 22 June 1951, p. 6. Westhoughton by-election, 1951http://www.by-elections.co.uk/51.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120225141850/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/51.html 1951 By Election Results 2012-02-25 dead 2015-08-12 Labour Party (UK) Tom Price 25,368 60.4 −1.8 Conservative Party (UK) Frank J. Land 16,614 39.6 +1.8 8,754 20.8 −3.7 41,982 Labour Party (UK) −1.8 References Westhoughton Westhoughton 1951 Westhoughton Westhoughton 1951 Westhoughton 1951 Westhoughton 1951 Category:Westhoughton