1920 Paisley by-election
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First party
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Second party
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Third party
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Candidate
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H. H. Asquith
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John Biggar
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James MacKean
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Party
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Liberal
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Labour
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Unionist
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Popular vote
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14,736
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11,902
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3,795
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Percentage
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48.4%
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39.1%
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12.5%
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Swing
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14.4%
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5.6%
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12.5%
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The
1920 Paisley by-election
was a parliamentary
by-election
held on 12 February 1920 for the
House of Commons
constituency of
Paisley
in Scotland. It was caused by the death of the constituency's sitting
Liberal
Member of Parliament
Sir
John Mills McCallum
. Former Prime Minister H.H. Asquith, who was still leader of the Liberal Party but who had lost his seat at the
1918 general election
, returned to the Commons.
Electoral history
[
edit
]
The result at the last General Election in 1918 was;
Asquith’s return
[
edit
]
The by-election provided an opportunity for the return to Parliament of
H. H. Asquith
, the former Prime Minister who had lost his
East Fife
seat to the Unionists at the
1918 general election
in the aftermath of the split in the
Liberal Party
over
David Lloyd George
's coalition with the
Conservatives
. Asquith remained party leader, and the opponents of the coalition came to be known as the
Independent Liberals
, or unofficially as the ‘Wee Frees’ after a Scottish religious sect of that name.
Initially, it was widely expected that Biggar, who had nearly won the seat in 1918 and who was endorsed by nine former Liberal MPs, would win.
[2]
The Liberal Party in the constituency was split between supporters of Asquith and Lloyd George, and Asquith, whose continued leadership of the Liberal Party was being much criticised, was only narrowly selected as candidate, although after his formal adoption on 21 January 1920 the local Liberal Association united behind him. He initially had misgivings about returning to Scotland and risking his career, but grew more confident as the campaign progressed.
[3]
Asquith had been an opponent of
women’s suffrage
(women over thirty were given the vote under the
Representation of the People Act 1918
), and (30 January 1920) thought women voters “hopelessly ignorant, credulous to the last degree, and flickering with gusts of sentiment like a candle in the wind. Then there are some thousands of Irish, who have been ordered by their bosses to vote Labour ? as if Labour had ever done or was ever likely to do anything for them”. Asquith directed most of his campaign not against Labour but against the Coalition candidate, whom he thought “a foul-mouthed Tory”. He condemned the Treaty of Versailles and called for moderation over
German reparations
, immediate
Dominion Status
for
Ireland
(where the
Irish War of Independence
was currently in progress)
[4]
and warned of the danger of
tariffs
being erected, especially by the newly independent small states of
Central and Eastern Europe
.
[5]
[6]
Political biographer
John Campbell
noted parallels between the Paisley campaign condemning Lloyd George's opportunism and the
Paris Peace Conference
to
William Ewart Gladstone
's
Midlothian campaign
condemning
Benjamin Disraeli
and the
Congress of Berlin
.
[7]
Such comparisons were made at the time, although Asquith himself was more circumspect.
[8]
Sir John Simon
and
Lord Buckmaster
spoke in Asquith's support, as did his daughter
Violet
who had become an excellent speaker. The “foul-mouthed Tory” lost his
deposit
(by ten votes), to Asquith’s delight.
[9]
The by-election seemed to be a triumph for the Independent Liberals with a majority of 2,834 votes over
Labour
and a blow for the government.
Result
[
edit
]
Aftermath
[
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]
At the following General Election in 1922, Asquith held the seat narrowly, with a much reduced majority (albeit a slightly larger share of the vote) in a two-horse race against Labour. The result was:
Asquith held the seat again at the
1923 election
but was defeated by Labour at the
1924 election
. He was then elevated to the House of Lords as
Earl of Oxford and Asquith
.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ^
Koss 1985, p246-7
- ^
Koss 1985, p242-7
- ^
government policy at the time was restore British rule so that
Home Rule
, postponed since
1914
, could at last be implemented. The
Irish Free State
eventually set up in 1921-2 was technically a dominion, in British eyes at least.
- ^
This was a period of currency turmoil and competitive devaluations among these small countries. Free trade was a totemic issue for Liberals, as Asquith had been a leading campaigner against
Joseph Chamberlain
's campaign for
Tariff Reform
in the run up to the Liberals' landslide victory in
1906
- ^
Jenkins 1964, p486-7
- ^
Campbell, John (2010).
Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown
. London: Vintage. p. 181.
ISBN
978-1-84595-091-0
.
OCLC
489636152
.
- ^
Koss 1985, p248-9
- ^
Jenkins 1964, p486-7
- ^
British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ^
British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Jenkins, Roy
(1964).
Asquith
(first ed.). London: Collins.
OCLC
243906913
.
- Koss, Stephen
(1985).
Asquith
. London: Hamish Hamilton.
ISBN
978-0-231-06155-1
.
- The Radical Thread: Political Change in Scotland. Paisley Politics, 1885-1924
by Catriona M M MacDonald, Scottish Historical Review, 2000
- Victory at Paisley
; Graeme Peters on Asquith’s return to Parliament; Journal of Liberal History, Issue 19, Summer 1998, p14 & 17
https://web.archive.org/web/20110617010157/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/19_peters_victory_at_paisley.pdf
- Hold on, hold out; we are coming
; Ian Hunter on the speech made by Lady Violet Bonham Carter on the return of her father to Parliament; Journal of Liberal History, Issue 37, Winter 2002-03 pp 22?25
https://web.archive.org/web/20120502132739/http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/37-Winter%25202002-03.pdf
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