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1926 North Cumberland by-election

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The 1926 North Cumberland by-election was held on 17 September 1926. The by-election was held due to the succession to the peerage of the incumbent Conservative MP, Donald Howard. It was won by the Conservative candidate Fergus Graham.[1]

Vacancy

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The by-election was held due to the succession to the peerage of the incumbent Unionist MP, Donald Howard. He had been MP here since winning the seat in 1922.

Election history

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Cumberland North was created for the 1918 general election. At that election, the Unionist candidate, endorsed by the Coalition Government, was returned unopposed. The first actual electoral contest occurred in 1922 when Howard narrowly held the seat for the Unionists, in a 2-way contest with the Liberal. At the 1923 general election, Howard again narrowly held off the new Liberal challenger, R.D. Holt. At the 1924 general election, a Labour Party candidate intervened for the first time. This damaged Holt's prospects and Howard was easily re-elected;

R.D. Holt
1924 general election: North Cumberland [2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Donald Howard 10,586 54.2 +3.6
Liberal Richard Durning Holt 6,821 34.9 −14.5
Labour B. Brooke 2,125 10.9 New
Majority 3,765 19.3 +18.1
Turnout 19,532 86.0 +2.8
Unionist hold Swing +9.1

Candidates

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Campaign

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Polling Day was set for 17 September 1926.

Liberal divisions

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In 1926, the Liberal Party was internally divided between the supporters of party leader H.H. Asquith and parliamentary party chairman David Lloyd George. The 1926 General Strike had seen the two men take differing positions on the issue and Asquith publicly criticised Lloyd George's position. Holt had never been either a supporter of Lloyd George or the interventionist social liberal policies he had advocated in the past or was again advocating. Holt was a member of the 'Liberal Council' a body of Asquithian Liberals intent on frustrating Lloyd George.[5] Although the ailing Asquith was still nominally the Liberal Party leader, increasingly Lloyd George was regarded as the leader in waiting. Therefore the decision of Lloyd George to neither visit the constituency during the by-election nor to issue a letter of support to Holt's candidacy, did not help the Liberal campaign.

Result

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There was a swing of 4.3% from Unionist to Liberal, but not a big enough swing to take the Liberals to victory. The Labour Party vote share went up.

North Cumberland by-election, 1926[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Fergus Graham 8,867 47.8 −6.4
Liberal Richard Durning Holt 6,871 37.1 +2.2
Labour H. W. McIntyre 2,793 15.1 +4.2
Majority 1,996 10.7 −8.6
Turnout 18,331 82.0 −4.0
Unionist hold Swing -4.3

Aftermath

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Three years later at the 1929 general election, there was a Graham/Holt re-match with a new Labour candidate. Graham was again the victor, despite a further swing of 3.8% to the Liberals;

1929 general election: North Cumberland [7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Fergus Graham 10,392 44.9 −2.9
Liberal Richard Durning Holt 9,661 41.7 +4.6
Labour C. A. O'Donnell 3,092 13.4 −1.7
Majority 731 3.2 −7.5
Turnout 23,145 83.7 +1.7
Unionist hold Swing -3.8

Graham remained the member until his defeat by a Liberal in 1935. He later served as MP for Darlington from 1951-59. Holt did not stand for parliament again.

References

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  1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
  2. ^ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949
  3. ^ 'GRAHAM, Sir (Frederick) Fergus’, Who Was Who, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2016; online edn, Oxford University Press, 2014; online edn, April 2014 accessed 10 Aug 2016
  4. ^ OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT. "The Fight For Cumberland." Times [London, England] 15 Sept. 1926: 12. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
  5. ^ The Downfall of the Liberal Party, Trevor Wilson
  6. ^ British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, Craig[full citation needed]
  7. ^ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949; Political Reference Publications, Glasgow 1949