1906 Huddersfield by-election

The Huddersfield by-election was a Parliamentary by-election. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

1906 Huddersfield by-election

28 November 1906

Candidate Sherwell Williams Fraser Party Liberal Labour Conservative Popular vote 5,762 5,422 4,844 Percentage 36.0 33.8 30.2

MP before election Sir James Woodhouse Liberal Subsequent MP Arthur Sherwell Liberal

Vacancy

Sir James Woodhouse had been Liberal MP here since the 1895 General Election. He resigned upon his appointment as the Rail and Canal Traffic Commissioner.

Electoral history

The seat had been Liberal since Woodhouse re-gained it in 1895. It had been a marginal seat but Woodhouse had won with a bit to spare in 1895 and 1900. They narrowly held the seat at the last election, following the intervention of a labour candidate;

Woodhouse

General Election 1906 Huddersfield[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	James Woodhouse	6,302	38.2	−15.4
	Labour Repr. Cmte.	T. Russell Williams	5,813	35.2	New
	Conservative	John Foster Fraser	4,391	26.6	−19.8
Majority			489	3.0	−4.2
Turnout			16,506	94.0	+6.2
Registered electors			17,568
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.2

Candidates

The local Liberal Association selected 43 year-old temperance campaigner Arthur Sherwell to defend the seat. The Conservatives retained 38 year old journalist John Foster Fraser as their candidate. 37 year old Thomas Russell Williams who had stood as a candidate of the Labour Representation Committee at the general election also re-stood, but this time as the candidate of the Labour Party. Although Huddesfield raised, he worked as a Mill manager in Keighley.[2]

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for the 28 November 1906. The Conservative and Labour challengers started with an advantage as their names were known from having contested the constituency nine months earlier. The Liberals had received a setback, losing Cockermouth to the Conservatives in a by-election three months earlier. Liberal candidates in other by-elections had also seen their vote share fall from its general election high-point. In Huddersfield, since the general election, the Liberal association had undergone re-organisation and had substantially increased its membership. Williams the Labour candidate was regarded as a quasi-Marxist socialist and struggled to relate his stances to local trade unionists who wanted firm policy commitments from him.[2] Sherwell, the Liberal candidate supported giving women the vote. Despite this, the Women's Social and Political Union set up a local campaign office to campaign against him.[3]

Result

The Liberals held the seat with a slightly reduced majority;

Huddersfield by-election, 1906[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Sherwell	5,762	36.0	-2.2
	Labour	T. Russell Williams	5,422	33.8	-1.4
	Conservative	John Foster Fraser	4,844	30.2	+3.6
Majority			340	2.2	-0.8
Turnout			16,028	91.2	-2.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-0.4

Aftermath

The Labour party decided that after two contests, Williams was not a good candidate, so changed him for another for the next election, only to see their share of the vote drop further. The Huddersfield Liberals were able stifle the growth of the Labour Party up to the First World War.[2]

General Election January 1910 Huddersfield[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Arthur Sherwell	7,158	39.8	+3.8
	Labour	Harry Snell	5,686	31.6	−2.2
	Conservative	Harold Smith	5,153	28.6	-1.6
Majority			1,472	8.2	+5.2
Turnout			17,997	94.6	+0.6
Registered electors			19,021
	Liberal hold		Swing	+2.6

References

1. British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 FWS Craig
2. Liberalism and the Rise of Labour 1890-1918 by Keith Laybourn, Jack Reynolds
3. The Scottish Suffragettes and the Press by Sarah Pedersen