Newport By-election, 1922

[LDCaerdydd]

Good little history lesson here

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2012/10/18/ninety-years-on-the-by-election-that-brought-down-a-coalition-government-91466-32057416/

[Harry Hayfield]

And for those not familiar with the electoral stats:

Newport: General Election 1918
Lewis Haslam (National Liberal) 14,080 votes (56%)
J W Bowen (Labour) 10,234 votes (41%)
B P Thomas (Independent) 647 votes (3%)
National Liberal WIN with a majority of 3,846 votes (15%) on a turnout of 62%

Newport by-election 1922
Reginald Clarry (Conservative) 13,515 votes (40%)
J W Bowen (Labour) 11,425 votes (34%)
Lyndon William Moore (Liberal) 8,841 votes (26%)
Conservative GAIN from National Liberal with a majority of 2,090 votes (6%) on a turnout of 79%

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Coalition Liberal in 1918.

One of the frequently made mistakes is that Lynden Moore (not Lyndon) was not actually running as a Coalition candidate in 1922; he did not receive a coupon. He ran as a Liberal without prefix, so not officially allied to either Lloyd George or Asquith but was the only candidate with a good word to say about the Coalition government. Clarry aligned with the diehard group who were trying to bring it down.

[timrollpickering]

Clarry was but also locally in Newport the coalition was breaking down over Licensing, with Haslam supporting restrictions. The local Conservatives committed to running their own candidate regardless of the national situation and instructions. Moore was only vaguely favourable to the Coalition compared to the others but all three were denouncing it. If he was anti-Turk it was on traditional Liberal grounds rather than support for the government.

The by-election had themes very familiar to modern eyes - a fence sitting Liberal, Liberals trying to demonise other candidates for being insufficiently local and all three candidates trying to present the contest as a two horse race.

[Sibboleth]

He gave a paper on the subject at the NAASWCH conference in July. A book by someone who has posted on this thread was in the bibliography, if I remember right.

[Sibboleth]

Anyways, I made this back in 2010:



Pretty.

[Philip Davies]

Monmouthshire the large one, Newport the small one. The always Labour cluster: Ebbw Vale in the North West, Pontypool in the East, Bedwellty in the South West and Abertillery in the middle.

[stepney]

Oct 18, 2012 15:58:47 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

Coalition Liberal in 1918.

One of the frequently made mistakes is that Lynden Moore (not Lyndon) was not actually running as a Coalition candidate in 1922; he did not receive a coupon. He ran as a Liberal without prefix, so not officially allied to either Lloyd George or Asquith but was the only candidate with a good word to say about the Coalition government. Clarry aligned with the diehard group who were trying to bring it down.

Were coupons (in, I mean, the style of 1918: "We endorse you as the Coalition Candidate, signed Lloyd George and Bonar Law/A. Chamberlain") issued for by-elections in the 1918 Parliament? Or had the mechanism evolved or indeed withered away?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Oct 19, 2012 11:01:29 GMT stepney said:

Were coupons (in, I mean, the style of 1918: "We endorse you as the Coalition Candidate, signed Lloyd George and Bonar Law/A. Chamberlain") issued for by-elections in the 1918 Parliament? Or had the mechanism evolved or indeed withered away?

In many byelections, the Coalition officially endorsed a particular candidate. At one of the early byelections in Leyton West, where a Coalition Conservative was challenged by an opposition Liberal, Lloyd George sent a letter of support to the Coalition Conservative candidate. The Liberal campaign retaliated with leaflet highlighting the fact that the Conservative (a former MP) had spent his entire life in the House of Commons opposing things that Lloyd George held dear.

This was all a bit embarrassing and as a result it was decided that a Coalition Conservative would get a letter from Bonar Law (later Austen Chamberlain), and a Coalition Liberal would get a letter from Lloyd George, each wishing them well in the election as a supporter of the Coalition government. A sort of 'half-coupon'.

In Central Aberdeenshire the problem with that approach became apparent. The sitting MP was a Coalition Conservative. His predecessor, John Henderson was a Liberal who had not been an Asquithite and gave satisfactory assurances to the Coalition Liberal whips' office. But then the Conservative Association refused to accept him and adopted their own candidate. The Conservative got the coupon and Henderson then withdrew; the local Liberals adopted Murdoch McKenzie Wood as an opposition Liberal, and he won the seat.

Paisley in 1920 caused another problem. The sitting MP had been a Liberal who had been pressed to take the coupon but refused, and was elected anyway. Asquith decided to fight the seat as it was held by his group. The Unionist received a letter from Bonar Law, and was unofficially a supporter of the government, but said at first that he would not welcome a coupon. Later in the campaign when things were not looking good for him, came indications that he wouldn't have minded a letter from Lloyd George as well.