Haggerston by-election, 1908

Haggerston in 1908

The Haggerston 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

Cremer

Sir Randal Cremer the sitting member died on 22 July 1908. He had been Liberal MP for the seat of Haggerston since the 1900 General Election.

Electoral history

The seat had been Liberal since they gained it in 1900. They easily held the seat at the last election, with an increased majority;

General Election 1906: Shoreditch, Haggerston^[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Sir William Randal Cremer	2,772	53.9	+3.6
	Conservative	Hon. Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness	2,371	46.1	-3.6
Majority			401	7.8	+7.2
Turnout			6,403	80.3	+13.1
	Liberal hold		Swing	+3.6

No Labour Party or Socialist candidate had ever stood. At the London County Council election, 1907 The Conservative backed Municipal Reform Party had gained Haggerston from the Liberal backed Progressive Party.

Candidates

Guinness

• The local Liberal Association selected Walter Richard Warren to defend the seat. He was standing for parliament for the first time.
• The Conservatives retained 34-year-old Hon. Rupert Guinness as their candidate. He served as a captain in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and was commanding officer of HMS President (London Division RNVR) from 1903. He was standing for parliament for the second time, having lost here in 1906. However, in 1907 he experienced electoral success in Haggerston when he was one of the two Municipal Reform candidates elected to serve on the London County Council
• The Socialist Social Democratic Federation chose to intervene in the by-election, and fielded Herbert Burrows a 63-year-old former civil servant from Suffolk, one of the organisers of the Matchgirls Strike. He was standing for parliament for the first time.

Campaign

Polling Day was fixed for 30 June 1908.

Result

The Conservatives gained the seat on a swing of 10.25%;

Haggerston by-election, 1908^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Hon. Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness	2,867	51.4	-2.5
	Liberal	Walter Richard Warren	1,724	30.9	-23.0
	Social Democratic Federation	Herbert Burrows	986	17.7	n/a
Majority			1,143	20.5	28.3
Turnout
	Conservative gain from Liberal		Swing	+10.25

The result was seen as a victory for Tariff Reform^[3] and a disappointment to the third party Social Democratic Federation.^[4]

Aftermath

Warren sought election to parliament at the next General Election at the Conservative seat of Wandsworth, without success. Guinness once again faced Burrows and a new Liberal candidate who defeated him;

General Election January 1910: Shoreditch, Haggerston^[5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Henry George Chancellor	3,041	48.0	+17.1
	Conservative	Hon. Rupert Edward Cecil Lee Guinness	2,586	40.9	-10.5
	Social Democratic Federation	Herbert Burrows	701	11.1	-6.6
Majority			455	7.1	27.6
Turnout
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+13.8

Warren switched his attention to municipal politics and in March 1910, standing for the Liberal backed Progressive Party, he gained a seat from the Conservative backed Municipal Reform Party at Battersea in the London County Council election, 1910.

References

1. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
2. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918
3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90422285
4. http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/8th-august-1908/2/the-polling-in-the-haggerston-division-of-shoredit
5. British parliamentary election results 1885-1918