1913 Houghton-le-Spring by-election

The Houghton-le-Spring 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.

Vacancy

Robert Cameron had been Liberal MP for Houghton-le-Spring since 1895. He died on 13 February 1913.

Previous results

Cameron was elected unopposed in December 1910, however, he was opposed at the election before.

General election January 1910 Electorate 17,504

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Robert Cameron	10,393	70.3
	Conservative	Hugh Sidney Streatfield	4,382	29.7
Majority			6,011	40.6
Turnout			14,775	84.4
	Liberal hold		Swing

Candidates

The Liberals chose a Grimsby man, Tom Wing to defend the seat. He was elected at the January 1910 general election as Member of Parliament (MP) for Grimsby, but lost that seat at the general election in December 1910.

The Unionists selected local barrister, Thomas Richardson as their candidate. His father had been Liberal MP for Hartlepool.

Labour intervened with an Independent Labour Party member, William House, who was sponsored by the Durham Miners' Association, for whom he had been President since 1900. House stood for the Labour Party in Bishop Auckland at the January and December 1910 general elections.

Campaign

In the recent past, there had been a good working relationship between the local miners and the local Liberal Association to the point that by 1913, miners still dominated the local Liberal association. Every miners lodge in the constituency was represented at Wing's selection meeting. During the campaign, many miners lodge officials spoke on platforms in support of Wing.[1] This came as something of a slap in the face to both the Independent Labour Party and the Durham Miners Association who had hoped that the local miners would support their candidate, House. This split in the local miners lodges was good news for the Unionist campaign. They knew that their only hoping of winning was if the Labour candidate took half or the Liberal vote, allowing the Unionists the chance to come through the middle.

Result

Tom Wing

Houghton-le-Spring by-election, 1913

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Wing	6,930	43.6	-26.7
	Unionist	Thomas Richardson	4,807	30.2	+0.5
	Labour	William House	4,165	26.2	+26.2
Majority			2,123	13.4	-27.2
Turnout			15,902	83.6	-0.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-13.6

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place. House's parliamentary interests moved on to the Mid Durham constituency, while Richardson never stood again.

General Election 1914/15: Houghton-le-Spring Electorate 19,722

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Thomas Wing
	Labour	W. P. Richardson
	Unionist

At the eleventh hour, the Labour party replaced W.P.Richardson as candidate with another local miner Robert Richardson

General election 14 December 1918: Houghton-le-Spring Electorate 32,552

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Richardson	7,315	36.3
	Liberal	Thomas Wing	6,626	32.9
	National Democratic	John Lindsley	6,185	30.8
Majority			689	3.4	N/A
Turnout			20,126
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

• Lindsley was the endorsed candidate of the Coalition Government.

References

1. Political Change and the Labour Party 1900-1918 by Duncan Tanner

• Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
• Who's Who: www.ukwhoswho.com
• Debrett's House of Commons 1916