The 1928 Halifax by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 July 1928 for the British House of Commons constituency of Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire.[1]
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Member of Parliament (MP), John Henry Whitley, the Speaker of the House of Commons since 1921, had resigned his seat[2] due to ill-health. He had been elected as a Liberal Party MP at the 1900 general election,[2] and as speaker had been returned unopposed at the general elections in 1922, 1923 and 1924.[3] The last time that there had been a contested election for the seat was at the 1918 general election, when Whitley had been opposed only by a Socialist Labour Party candidate.
The result of the three-way contest was a victory for the Labour candidate, Arthur Longbottom, who won with a majority of 4,951 over the Liberal Harry Barnes,[1] who had previously been MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East.[4] Longbottom had previously been a councillor in Halifax and served as its mayor in 1923.[5]
At the following year's general election Longbottom held the seat with an increased majority of 7,063 votes. That contest also saw a new Conservative candidate, Gilbert Gledhill overtake the Liberals and move into second place.[5] In 1931, Gledhill took the seat for the Conservatives, defeating Longbottom by over 20,000 votes.[6]