1931 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election

UK parliamentary by-election October 2020 June 2025 June 2013 The 1931 Ashton-Under-Lyne by-election was held on 30 April. It was triggered by the death of the town's Labour MP, Albert Bellamy, and resulted in a victory for the Conservative candidate, Col John Broadbent. This was the first election contested by Oswald Mosley's New Party, which had only been formed on 1 March that year after Mosley had resigned from the Labour Party. The furious crowd on the market ground by the town hall shouted down Mosley as he tried to speak after the declaration, calling him a traitor and blaming him for Labour's defeat. He is reputed to have said to his aide, John Strachey: "That is the crowd that has prevented anyone doing anything in England since the (First World) War." Strachey believed that it was at that point that British fascism was born. Mosley had been seriously ill with pleurisy and pneumonia, preventing him from taking part in the campaign until its last week. During the campaign there were huge crowds to hear Mosley's wife, Lady Cynthia, speak. However, the Ashton Reporter felt that these were artificially swelled by the many girls who wanted to admire the clothes worn by the glamorous Lady Cynthia. The Labour Party hoped to hold the seat, and narrowed its choice of possible candidates to two: Stan Awbery, an activist in the Transport and General Workers' Union, based in Wales, and John William Gordon, an Irish-born Catholic who was chief accountant of the National Union of Railwaymen. Concerns that the substantial number of Catholics in the seat might have become disillusioned with the party led to the selection of Gordon to contest the seat.New Party candidate for Ashton The Guardian 15 April 1931Riddell Neil Labour in Crisis: The Second Labour Government 1929-1931 1999 Manchester University Press Manchester 0719050847 113 Result Ashton-under-Lyne by-election, 1931 Conservative Party (UK) John Broadbent 12,420 44.6 +11.6 Labour Party (UK) John William Gordon 11,005 39.4 −5.0 New Party (UK) Allan Young 4,472 16.0 New 1,415 5.2 N/A 27,897 80.2 −5.7 Conservative Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) +8.3 References Craig F. W. S. F. W. S. Craig British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 1969 3rd 1983 Parliamentary Research Services Chichester 0-900178-06-X March 2012 See also List of United Kingdom by-elections Ashton-under-Lyne constituency 1920 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election 1928 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election 1939 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election 1945 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Greater Manchester constituencies Category:1931 elections in the United Kingdom Category:1931 in England Category:1930s in Lancashire Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies Category:Ashton-under-Lyne Category:Elections in Tameside Category:April 1931 in the United Kingdom