1922 Cambridge by-election explained

Election Name:1922 Cambridge by-election
Type:parliamentary
Country:United Kingdom
Previous Election:1918 United Kingdom general election
Previous Year:1918
Next Election:1922 United Kingdom general election
Next Year:1922 (GE)
Election Date:16 March 1922
Candidate1:George Newton
Image1: Con
Party1:Conservative Party (UK)
Popular Vote1:10,897
Percentage1:48.69%
Candidate2:Hugh Dalton
Party2:Labour Party (UK)
Popular Vote2:6,954
Percentage2:31.07%
MP
Posttitle:Subsequent MP
Before Election:Eric Geddes
Before Party:Conservative Party (UK)
After Election:George Newton
After Party:Conservative Party (UK)
Turnout:80.4% (19.5%)
Image3: Lib
Popular Vote3:4,529
Percentage3:20.24%
Candidate3:Sydney Cope Morgan
Party3:Liberal Party (UK)
Swing1: 26.61%
Swing2: 6.37%
Swing3:
Registered:27,833
Seats For Election:Constituency of Cambridge

The 1922 Cambridge by-election was a by-election held on 16 March 1922 for the British House of Commons constituency of Cambridge.

The by-election was caused by the resignation on 7 November 1921 of the town's Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Sir Eric Geddes, who had held the seat since 1917, and had come under criticism as Minister of Transport for the scale of nationalisation he had overseen, and over charges of departmental inefficiency. He chose to resign as both cabinet minister and MP.

The result was a comfortable victory for the new Conservative candidate Sir George Newton, who held the seat until his elevation to the peerage in 1934 as Baron Eltisley. The election nonetheless saw a sharp fall in the Conservative share of the vote (by over one third) since the 'khaki election' of 1918, although the Conservative vote only actually fell by 656, and Newton's fall in vote share is mainly attributable by a slight rise in the Labour vote, and the appearance of the first Liberal candidate to contest the seat since 1910.

Of the two unsuccessful candidates, Hugh Dalton was a Cambridge-educated LSE lecturer in economics who went on to be an MP from 1924, and became Labour's Chancellor under Clement Attlee; and Sydney Cope Morgan was a Cambridge-educated barrister who went on to contest the seat again for the Liberals with an increased vote at each of the next two general elections.

All three candidates were contesting the seat for the first time, and Dalton would not contest the seat again.

References

See also