Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency)

Smethwick was a parliamentary constituency, centred on the town of Smethwick in Staffordshire. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system. The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the February 1974 general election.

Smethwick
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–February 1974
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Warley East
Created from	Handsworth

The constituency gained national interest during the 1918 general election when the Suffragette leader Christabel Pankhurst decided to stand as a Woman's Party candidate supporting the Coalition. She was one of 17 women candidates standing for Parliament at the first opportunity. This was her one and only parliamentary campaign which she lost to the Labour candidate.[1]

In 1945 the constituency held the first post-war by-election when the winning Labour candidate, Alfred Dobbs, was killed in a road traffic accident less than twenty four hours after the count.[2] The constituency was the subject of national media coverage during the 1964 general election when Peter Griffiths, the Conservative Party candidate, gained the seat against the national trend, unseating the Labour Party sitting member, Patrick Gordon Walker, a front bench opposition spokesman in the previous Parliament, in a campaign with racial overtones.[3]

Boundaries

The County Borough of Smethwick.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	John Davison	Labour
	1926	Sir Oswald Mosley	Labour
	1931		New Party
	1931	Roy Wise	Conservative
	1945	Alfred Dobbs	Labour
	1945	Patrick Gordon Walker	Labour
	1964	Peter Griffiths	Conservative
	1966	Andrew Faulds	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished: see Warley East

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

Pankhurst

General election 1918: Smethwick[4][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Davison	9,389	52.2
	Women's Party	Christabel Pankhurst	8,614	47.8
Majority			775	4.4
Turnout			18,003	54.7
	Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Davison	13,141	50.7	−1.5
	Unionist	Arthur Henry Addenbrooke Simcox	12,759	49.3	+1.5
Majority			382	1.4	−3.0
Turnout			25,900	75.9	+21.2
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.5

General election 1923: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Davison	13,550	54.7	+4.0
	Unionist	Edmund Brocklebank	11,217	45.3	−4.0
Majority			2,333	9.4	+8.0
Turnout			24,767	71.7	−4.2
	Labour hold		Swing	−4.0

General election 1924: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Davison	14,491	52.3	−2.4
	Unionist	Marshall James Pike	13,238	47.7	+2.4
Majority			1,253	4.6	−4.8
Turnout			27,729	78.2	+6.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-2.4

1926 Smethwick by-election[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Oswald Mosley	16,077	57.1	+4.8
	Unionist	Marshall James Pike	9,495	33.7	−14.0
	Liberal	Edwin Bayliss	2,600	9.2	New
Majority			6,582	23.4	+18.8
Turnout			35,862	78.6	+0.4
	Labour hold		Swing	−9.4

General election 1929: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Oswald Mosley	19,550	54.8	−2.3
	Unionist	Roy Wise	12,210	34.2	+0.5
	Liberal	Maude Egerton Marshall	3,909	11.0	+1.8
Majority			7,340	20.6	−2.8
Turnout			35,669	78.9	+0.3
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.4

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Roy Wise	20,945	60.1	+25.9
	Labour	W. Ernest Lawrence	13,927	39.9	−14.9
Majority			7,018	20.2	N/A
Turnout			34,872	74.7	−4.2
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+20.3

General election 1935: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Roy Wise	16,575	52.5	−7.6
	Labour	Charles Wortham Brook	15,023	47.5	+7.6
Majority			1,552	5.0	−17.2
Turnout			31,598	70.7	−4.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	−7.7

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Smethwick[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alfred Dobbs	20,522	65.9	+18.4
	Conservative	Gilbert Harold Samuel Edgar	10,637	34.1	−18.4
Majority			9,885	31.8	N/A
Turnout			31,159	72.4	+1.7
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	−18.4

1945 Smethwick by-election[4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	19,364	68.8	+2.9
	Conservative	Gilbert Harold Samuel Edgar	8,762	31.2	−2.9
Majority			10,602	37.6	+5.8
Turnout			43,020	65.4	−7.0
	Labour hold		Swing	−2.9

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	28,750	62.1	−6.7
	Conservative	J. Fallon	17,553	37.9	+6.7
Majority			11,197	24.2	−13.4
Turnout			46,303	86.9	+21.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-6.7

General election 1951: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	27,739	60.6	−1.5
	Conservative	A. Norman Giles	18,012	39.4	+1.5
Majority			9,727	21.2	−3.0
Turnout			45,751	83.5	-3.4
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.5

General election 1955: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	23,151	58.2	−2.4
	Conservative	John Wells	16,656	41.8	+2.4
Majority			6,495	16.4	−4.8
Turnout			39,807	75.5	−8.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-2.5

General election 1959: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	20,670	54.7	−3.5
	Conservative	Peter Griffiths	17,126	45.3	+3.5
Majority			3,544	9.4	−7.0
Turnout			37,796	75.9	+0.4
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.5

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Peter Griffiths	16,690	47.6	+2.3
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	14,916	42.6	−12.1
	Liberal	David Hugill	3,172	9.0	New
	Independent	Dudley Trevor Davies	262	0.8	New
Majority			1,774	5.0	N/A
Turnout			35,040	74.1	−1.8
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	−7.2

General election 1966: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Faulds	18,440	54.4	+11.8
	Conservative	Peter Griffiths	14,950	44.1	−3.5
	British National	R. Stanley	508	1.5	New
Majority			3,490	10.3	N/A
Turnout			33,898	75.4	+1.3
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	−7.6

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Smethwick

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Andrew Faulds	16,077	52.2	−2.2
	Conservative	B. Brian Rathbone	13,968	45.4	+1.3
	Liberal	Mihir Gupta	747	2.4	New
Majority			2,109	6.8	−3.5
Turnout			30,792	68.1	−7.3
	Labour hold		Swing	-1.7

See also

• List of former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies
• Smethwick (the town)
• 1926 Smethwick by-election
• 1945 Smethwick by-election
• Smethwick in the 1964 general election

References

1. Hallam, David J.A. Taking on the Men: the first women parliamentary candidates 1918, Studley 2018, chapter two "Pankhurst in Smethwick".
2. Ibid page 24, footnote.
3. Jeffries, Stuart (15 October 2014). "Britain's most racist election: the story of Smethwick, 50 years on". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 March 2020.
4. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig (1983). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
5. Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 3)