1931 Sunderland by-election

The 1931 Sunderland by-election was held on 26 March 1931. The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Labour MP, Alfred Smith. Smith and his Labour colleague Dr Marion Phillips had gained the two-member seat at the last general election from the Conservatives Luke Thompson and Walter Raine, who had first won it in 1922 Another defeated candidate in 1929 was the Liberal Dr Betty Morgan, then aged 24. Both Thompson and Morgan contested the by-election.

The by-election saw Luke Thompson narrowly regain the seat he had lost in 1929 for the Conservatives. At the general election held later in the year, Thompson was returned with a greatly increased majority of over 23,000 votes, and his fellow Conservative Samuel Storey was also comfortably elected as the seat's second member.

General election 1929: Sunderland Electorate 101,875

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	YMarion Phillips	31,794	19.5	+0.2
	Labour	YAlfred Smith	31,085	19.0	N/A
	Conservative	Walter Raine	29,180	17.9	−7.4
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	28,937	17.7	−7.7
	Liberal	Betty Morgan	21,300	13.0	−4.8
	Liberal	John Pratt	21,142	12.9	+0.7
Majority			1,905	1.1	N/A
Turnout			163,438	81.1	−3.5
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

1931 Sunderland by-election Electorate 103,363

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Luke Thompson	30,497	40.3	+3.7
	Labour	James Thomas Brownlie	30,074	39.8	+1.3
	Liberal	Betty Morgan	15,020	19.9	−6.0
Majority			423	0.5	N/A
Turnout			75,591	73.1	−8.0
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing