1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election
UK parliamentary by-election
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 November 1919[1] for the British House of Commons constituency of Sutton in the city of Plymouth, Devon.
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28 November 1919
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| Registered | 38,539 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 72.5% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Waldorf Astor, succeeded the peerage as the second Viscount Astor on the death of his father on 18 October 1919.
Astor had held the seat since the 1918 general election, and its predecessor Plymouth since the December 1910 general election.
Candidates
- The Conservative Party selected as its candidate Astor's wife Nancy, Lady Astor. She was also the candidate of the Coalition Government.
- William Thomas Gay stood for Labour, having done so in the 1918 election. Thomas William Mercer again served as his agent.[2]
- The Asquithian Liberals stood Isaac Foot, who had served on Plymouth City Council and had previously contested Totnes and Bodmin.
Result
Lady Astor retained the seat. She became the first woman to take up her seat in the Commons when the first woman to be elected, Countess Markievicz, (the Sinn Féin MP for Dublin St Patrick's refused to take her seat).
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | Nancy Astor | 14,495 | 51.9 | â14.0 |
| Labour | William Gay | 9,292 | 33.3 | +12.7 | |
| Liberal | Isaac Foot | 4,139 | 14.8 | +1.3 | |
| Majority | 5,203 | 18.6 | â26.7 | ||
| Turnout | 27,926 | 72.5 | +12.9 | ||
| Registered electors | 38,539 | ||||
| Unionist hold | Swing | -13.3 | |||
| C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||
Previous result
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Unionist | Waldorf Astor | 17,091 | 65.9 | |
| Labour | William Gay | 5,334 | 20.6 | ||
| Liberal | Sidney Ransom | 3,488 | 13.5 | ||
| Majority | 11,757 | 45.3 | |||
| Turnout | 25,913 | 59.6 | |||
| Registered electors | 43,444 | ||||
| Unionist win (new seat) | |||||
| C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. | |||||