1952 Southport by-election

UK parliamentary by-election November 2019 The 1952 Southport by-election was held on 6 February 1952 after the incumbent Conservative MP Robert Hudson was elevated to a hereditary peerage. The Conservative candidate was Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh, a former mayor of Southport."News in Brief." Times [London, England] 15 Jan. 1952 The Labour Party selected 32-year old Alan Tillotson, an executive of the Bolton Evening News."News in Brief." Times [London, England] 17 Jan. 1952 Hubert Bentliff, who had been the Liberal Party's candidate at the previous year's general election, ran again for the party."News in Brief." Times [London, England] 24 Jan. 1952 The campaign focused mainly on issues arising from the general election, which had brought the Conservatives to power after six years of Labour government. For the Conservatives the focus was on the cost of living: "we are applying the brakes to arrest the disastrous fall in the buying power of the pound ... we are determined to put a stop to the creeping inflation which is not only eating into our social services, pensions and savings, but destroying our capacity to import the food and raw materials by which we live". Labour insisted that the Conservatives had won the general election by blaming the party for all the difficulties of the post war period: "They now admit ... that they were caused by circumstances outside the control of any Government" and warned that cuts in social services "might foreshadow more serious attacks on the welfare State in the Budget".OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. "Issues In Southport By-Election." Times [London, England] 2 Feb. 1952 With turnout down around 10,000 votes from the general election, the Labour vote declined slightly, Liberal support fell by nearly 4,000 and Conservative votes by nearly 6,000.. The result was a comfortable majority for the Conservatives in a constituency that they had only twice failed to win since the beginning of the century."Conservatives Hold Southport." Times [London, England] 7 Feb. 1952 Result Southport by-election, 1952http://www.by-elections.co.uk/52.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120225141840/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/52.html 1952 By Election Results 2012-02-25 dead 2015-08-12 Conservative Party (UK) Roger Fleetwood-Hesketh 24,589 62.0 +1.8 Labour Party (UK) A L Tillotson 11,310 28.5 +3.7 Liberal Party (UK) Hubert Bentliff 3,776 9.5 -5.5 13,279 33.5 -1.9 39,675 Conservative Party (UK) Previous result General election 1951: Southport Conservative Party (UK) Robert Hudson 30,388 60.2 +3.9 Labour Party (UK) H O Ellis 12,535 24.8 -2.0 Liberal Party (UK) Hubert Bentliff 7,576 15.0 -1.9 17,853 35.4 +5.9 50,499 77.7 -4.1 Conservative Party (UK) +2.9 References Category:Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton Southport by-election Southport by-election Southport by-election, 1952 Southport, 1952 Southport, 1952 Category:Southport Southport by-election