1908 Leeds South by-election

UK parliamentary by-election April 2022 1908 Leeds South by-election presidential United Kingdom Leeds South (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1900s 1906 Leeds South (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1910s Jan. 1910 13 February 1908 Middlebrook 65px Liberal Party (UK) 5,274 41.7% Neville Conservative Party (UK) 4,915 38.9% Fox 65px Labour Party (UK) 2,451 19.4% 250px MP Subsequent MP John Lawson Walton Liberal Party (UK) William Middlebrook Liberal Party (UK) The 1908 Leeds South by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Leeds South in the West Riding of Yorkshire held on 13 February 1908. Vacancy The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Liberal MP, John Lawson Walton. Lawson was Attorney-General in the Liberal government of Henry Campbell-BannermanThe Times, 20 January 1908 p8 and had been MP for Leeds South since 1892 when he himself won the seat at a by-election.F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918; Macmillan Press, 1974 p134 History thumb|120px|Walton General election 1906: Leeds SouthThe Liberal Year Book, 1907 Liberal Party (UK) John Walton 6,200 50.2 −1.0 Labour Representation Committee (1900) Albert E. Fox 4,030 32.6 New Conservative Party (UK) Henry Cameron-Ramsay-Fairfax-Lucy 2,126 17.2 −31.6 2,170 17.6 +15.2 12,356 81.7 +9.8 15,119 Liberal Party (UK) +15.3 Candidates Liberals The South Leeds Liberals selected William Middlebrook, a 57-year-old solicitor to be their candidate. Middlebrook had been a local councillor in Leeds and MorleyThe Times, 14 February 1908 p14 and it seems that one of the reasons he was selected was his ability to give financial aid to the Leeds South Liberal Association. John Lawson Walton had had paid the salary of his political agent and Middlebrook undertook to pay the constituency £100 a year.Neal Blewett, The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910; University of Toronto Press, 1972 p280 Conservatives The Conservatives originally seemed to be favouring the candidacy of Sir Henry Fairfax-Lucy, scion of the well-known Lucy family. Sir Henry had fought Leeds South for the Tories at the 1906 general election. However Sir Henry was a free-trader, which was a traditional Liberal policy and the Conservatives feared that tariff reform would become a controversial topic in the election if they chose Sir Henry as their man.The Times, 22 January 1908 p12 Perhaps to enable the local Conservatives to overcome this problem, Fairfax-Lucy diplomatically announced that he was not able to stand for Parliament at this time because he was too busy with the Territorial Force Association in Warwickshire of which he was chairman.The Times, 23 January 1908 p10 At a meeting on 27 January 1908, the local Conservative organisation in Leeds South adopted R J Neville, the Recorder of Bury St Edmunds as their candidate. Neville was 44 years old and had unsuccessfully contested South Leeds for the Conservatives on four previous occasions. Labour The Labour candidate at the 1906 general election, Albert E. Fox, the secretary of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen expressed his desire to stand again at the by-election but members of a rival railway trade union, the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants had protested against his candidacy and this caused some doubt over Labour's participation.The Times, 21 January 1908 p4 It seems there had been a falling out between Fox and some railway workers over the tactics and policies to be adopted in respect of union campaigning for improved working conditions and union recognition by the employers. There was considerable discord between the two unions over strategy J R Raynes, Engines and Men: the history of the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. A survey of organisation of railways and railway locomotive men; Goodall & Suddick, 1921, pp134-136 and Fox's loyally to the labour cause was questioned.The Times, 3 February 1908 p6 For some of his labour colleagues it was clear that Fox's socialism did not go far enough.The Times, 5 February 1908 p14 It was reported that Fox had secured the approval of party headquarters but the local Labour Representation Committee (LRC) were required to endorse him and there remained a danger that if he stood, a rival Labour candidate would enter the field as well.The Times, 27 January 1908 p6 The National Council of the Independent Labour Party had considered standing T R Williams who had been the Labour candidate in Huddersfield in 1906 among other possibles but these men withdrew their interest due to lack of funding to fight a campaign.The Times, 28 January 1908 p10 In the final week of January, the Labour party had officially appointed Joseph Pointer as their candidate. Pointer was aged 32 and a trades council activist from Sheffield,The Times, 29 January 1908 p9 a member of the United Patternmakers' Association.The Times, 31 January 1908 p12 It was reported he and his supporters had started campaigning in Leeds but by the end of the month Pointer had withdrawn from the field, the internal struggles in the Labour organisation having taken their toll. Fox emerged after all as Labour's candidate for the by-election despite the reservations of the local LRC about whether or not they should actively support his campaign. In the end the LRC voted by 89 votes to 85 not to endorse Fox's candidature but, despite this setback, he carried on as the representative of labour in the election fight. Election issues Neville issued his election address on 30 January, declaring himself a loyal supporter of Arthur Balfour. He agreed with Balfour's policy to reduce unemployment by taxation reform. He spoke in favour of freedom for Roman Catholic, Nonconformist and Jewish parents to choose to have their children taught about their religion. Neville was expected to carry the 900 or so votes of the Catholic community who strongly opposed national and local measures taken by the Liberal Party in respect of education and training which they claimed would destroy the character of Catholic schools.The Times, 1 February 1908 p10 However Irish voters in the constituency were divided in their loyalties, supporting Neville's stance on Catholic education but disliking his party's opposition to Irish Home Rule. Neville also opposed the Licensing Bill, which proposed restoration of local control of drinking establishments, a reduction in the number of public houses and the abolition of certain rights to compensation of suppressed licence-holders.George L Bernstein, Liberalism and Liberal Politics in Edwardian England; Allen and Unwin, 1986 p92 Neville called this an attempt to confiscate without full and reasonable compensation the interests of the property of a trade which has received the sanction and encouragement of the state. It was reported that all sections of the licensing trade were aligning themselves with Neville. Middlebrook's election address was a generally uncontroversial tract, pledging support for the policies of the Liberal government and avowed his support for Free Trade. However he found it necessary (possibly even on the instruction of party headquarters in London)Sandra Stanley Holton, Feminism and Democracy:Women’s Suffrage and Reform Politics in Britain; Cambridge University Press, 2003 pp38-39 to specify his support for the granting of votes for women, who were qualified. At this time the suffragettes were campaigning against all Liberal candidates in by-elections, whatever their declared opinion on votes for women, in protest at the government's unwillingness to bring in a women's suffrage Bill George L Bernstein, Liberalism and Liberal Politics in Edwardian England; Allen and Unwin, 1986 p152 and in retaliation for the government's crackdown on their growing militancy.The Times, 13 February 1908 p7 They promised to attend all Liberal meetings during the election, to heckle and disrupt proceedings. They were apparently unable to make good the threat, as it was reported at the beginning of February that the suffragettes had confined their campaign to the handing out of leaflets, although both Mary Gawthorpe and Emmeline Pankhurst visited the constituency before the election to campaign against Middlebrook Sandra Stanley Holton, Suffrage days: stories from the women’s suffrage movement; Routledge, 1996 p132 and one source records that one suffragette organiser arranged twenty-two meetings in one week alone.Krista Cowman, Women of the right spirit:paid organisers of the women’s social and political union, 1904-1918; Manchester University Press, 2007 p56 At one meeting on the eve of poll, close to the location of a pro-Middlebrook meeting being addressed by Rowland Barran the Liberal MP for Leeds North, the suffragettes called on electors to keep out the Liberal in retaliation for the government's having sent 54 women to prison for their part in the votes for women movement.The Times, 13 February 1908 p8 The Liberals in Leeds were definitely divided on the issue of women's suffrage and the government's response to the actions of the Women's Social and Political Union, the main suffragette organisation and one local suffragette recorded that some Liberal women refused to work or canvass for Middlebrook. Fox's election address declared in favour of social reform, including the immediate introduction of old age pensions, unemployment relief and education reform free from religious sectarianism or class favouritism. He supported free trade and universal adult suffrage, no doubt hoping to gain the support of the suffragettes and those voters who were in favour of their campaign. Result Middlebrook held the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 359 votes over Neville who restored the Conservatives to second place, Fairfax-Lucy having come bottom of the poll at the 1906 general election. Fox forfeited the second place he had achieved in 1906. While the government was no doubt pleased to retain the seat, the increase of 2,700 votes for the Conservatives and the loss of 1,000 for the Liberals and 1,600 for Labour (Fox presumably suffering from the damaging split in the labour ranks over his candidature) must have been a disappointment to Middlebrook and the Liberal Party, given the turnout was much the same as at the previous general election. The Leeds South result followed the loss of Ashburton on 17 January and of the Ross or Southern Division of Herefordshire on 31 January, both seats falling to the Liberal Unionists. But all governments suffer mid-term reverses and the government elected in 1906 was voted in with a landslide majority. thumb|120px|Middlebrook 1908 Leeds South by-election Liberal Party (UK) William Middlebrook 5,274 41.7 −8.5 Conservative Party (UK) Reginald Neville 4,915 38.9 +21.7 Labour Party (UK) Albert E. Fox 2,451 19.4 −13.2 359 2.8 −14.8 12,640 82.5 +0.8 15,321 Liberal Party (UK) +2.4 Aftermath The government continued to lose by-elections down to the next general election in January 1910 but they held many seats too, an indicator that the tide of public opinion was not flowing irreversibly away from the Liberal Party. In parliament, one of the first actions Middlebrook took on 28 February was to vote in favour of granting the vote to women.https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1908/feb/28/womens-enfranchisement-bill-1#S4V0185P0_19080228_HOC_82 28 February 1908 WOMEN'S ENFRANCHISEMENT BILL. Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) In Leeds South, Middlebrook went on to increase his majority substantially in January 1910, albeit in a straight fight with the Conservatives.The Times House of Commons, 1910; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p41 Even in a three-cornered contest in December 1910 he managed a majority of 2,260.The Times House of Commons, 1911; Politico’s Publishing, 2004 p44 General election January 1910: Leeds SouthDebrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916 Liberal Party (UK) William Middlebrook 8,969 67.3 +25.6 Conservative Party (UK) William Nicholson 4,366 32.7 -6.2 4,603 34.6 +31.8 13,335 84.8 +2.3 Liberal Party (UK) +15.9 See also 1892 Leeds South by-election List of United Kingdom by-elections United Kingdom by-election records References 30em Category:1908 elections in the United Kingdom South, 1908 Category:1908 in England Category:1900s in Leeds