1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election

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1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election
7 October 1919 (1919-10-07) (Polling)
20 October 1919 (1919-10-20) (Declaration)
Registered30,421
Turnout67.5%
 
Uni
Candidate John Henry Thorpe Robert Dunstan William Pringle
Party Unionist Labour Liberal
Alliance Coalition
Popular vote 9,394 6,412 3,923
Percentage 45.7% 31.2% 19.1%
Swing Decrease 19.4% Increase 15.6% Decrease 0.2%
MP before election

Robert Burdon Stoker
Unionist

 Subsequent MP

John Henry Thorpe
Unionist

The 1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in October 1919 for the British House of Commons constituency of Manchester Rusholme. The by-election was important for shaping the future Labour Party attitude to electoral relations with the Liberal Party.

Background

In September 1919 the Conservative MP Robert Burdon Stoker died. He had previously represented Manchester South since March 1918. At the 1918 general election he had been in receipt of the Coalition Government coupon.

Electoral history

The seat was created for the 1918 general election partly out of the Unionist/Liberal marginal seat of Manchester South and partly out of the Liberal seat of Stretford. The result at the last general election was;

General election, 1918: Manchester Rusholme[1]
Party Candidate Votes %
C Unionist Robert Burdon Stoker 12,447 65.1
Liberal Walter Butterworth 3,690 19.3
Labour Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence 2,985 15.6
Majority 8,748 45.8
Turnout 19,122 62.9
Registered electors 30,421
Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Candidates

Conservative

  • John Henry Thorpe, barrister and eldest son of Ven. John Henry Thorpe, Archdeacon of Macclesfield.

Potential candidates

  • Alan Maclure, Lieutenant Colonel and President the Rusholme Division Conservative Association[2]
  • Sir Percy Woodhouse, chair of the Manchester District Conservative and Unionist Association[2]
  • E. F. Stockton, President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce[2]
  • Sir William Kay, Alderman and Lord Mayor of Manchester[2]

Liberal

Labour

There was speculation that Labour would not contest the election, allowing the Liberals a clear run at the Unionists. Since the general election, Lib-Lab co-operation, otherwise known as the progressive alliance had seen the two parties gain two Unionist seats each. One of Labour's leading figures, Arthur Henderson was sympathetic to such an arrangement.[3] Henderson had himself been the beneficiary of Lib-Lab co-operation when the Liberals allowed him a straight fight with the Unionists at the 1919 Widnes by-election a month earlier. The Widnes seat neighboured Rusholme and the Liberals had been active in support of Henderson.[4] The local Labour Party insisted on fighting the seat and on 9 September announced a new candidate Dr. Robert Dunstan from Fulham, who had been a Liberal politician up until 1917.

Potential candidates

National

The Conservative Party also now faced a challenge from the right when the National Party intervened with first time candidate Capt. Roger Crewdson, after Thomas Nuttall and H. S. Pearce were mentioned.[2]

Communist

The Communist League attempted to get Anarchist communism activist Guy Aldred to contest the seat, but he did not.[2]

Campaign

The election campaign took place during the great railway strike of 1919.[3] Dunstan, the Labour candidate, sought to appeal to the centre ground by calling for widespread abolition of economic war-time restrictions. Pringle, the Liberal candidate, came out in support of Labour's policy of a capital levy, something that was not Liberal policy. It has been suggested that this stance may have cost him votes, lost to the Unionist candidate.[4] Pringle advocated economic retrenchment to appeal to Unionist voters and also the nationalization of the railways and mines to appeal to Labour voters.[5]

Result

The turnout for the by-election was up on the last general election. The Unionists managed to hold the seat. Their support had fallen, but not much because of the intervention of the National Party. The Labour candidate did particularly well and pushed the Liberal candidate into third place.

Manchester Rusholme by-election, 1919[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
C Unionist John Henry Thorpe 9,394 45.7 −19.4
Labour Robert Dunstan 6,412 31.2 +15.6
Liberal William Pringle 3,923 19.1 −0.2
National Roger Crewdson 815 4.0 New
Majority 2,982 14.5 −31.3
Turnout 20,544 67.5 +4.6
Registered electors 30,421
Unionist hold Swing -18.0
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Aftermath

The relative success of the Labour Party in such a constituency encouraged them to field candidates in further Unionist/Liberal marginals rather than seek to reconstruct the Progressive Alliance.[4]

Thorpe sat until his defeat by the Liberals in 1923. His son Jeremy Thorpe, became Leader of the Liberal Party. Dunstan continued to be unsuccessful in his bid to enter Parliament. Pringle made a successful return to the House in 1922, winning Penistone for the Liberals. Crewdson was later adopted as the National Party's prospective candidate for North Norfolk, before being adopted by the Unionists after the National Party was wound up.

References

  1. Craig, Fred W. S (1969). British parliamentary election results, 1918-1949. Political Reference Publications. ISBN 0900178019. Retrieved 5 April 2025.
  2. "Rusholme Election. Possibility Five-Cornered Contest". Yorkshire Evening Post. 9 September 1919. p. 8. Retrieved 5 May 2026.
  3. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson
  4. Trial By Ballot by Ivor RM Davies
  5. "Labour Candidate For Rusholme." Times [London, England] 10 Sept. 1919: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 5 Aug. 2014.
  6. "The Manchester By-Election. Prospect Of Several Candidates". Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer. 9 September 1919. p. 8. Retrieved 5 May 2026.