Bromley by-election, 1930

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The Bromley by-election, 1930 was a parliamentary by-election held on 2nd September 1930 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bromley in north-west Kent.

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), the Honourable Cuthbert James, died on 21st July 1930, aged 58. He had held the seat since winning a by-election in December 1919.

[edit] Candidates

The Conservative candidate was Edward Taswell Campbell, a 51-year-old former diplomat. Campbell had been Member of Parliament for Camberwell North West from 1924 until his defeat in 1929.

The Liberal candidate was W.G. Fordham, who had contested the constituency at the 1929 election, finishing second. The Labour candidate was A.E. Ashworth, who had also stood in 1929 and had come last of three.

The fourth candidate, V.C. Redwood, stood for the United Empire Party, which sought to make the British Empire a free trade bloc. This party was the creature of Lord Beaverbrook and Lord Rothermere, respectively proprietors of the Daily Express and Daily Mail.

The Empire Crusade and their newspapers had been pressing the leader of the Conservative Party, Stanley Baldwin, to adopt a more protectionist position. Their newspapers and platform were much more popular with the middle-class, commuter towns, in the Home Counties and London suburbs than elsewhere, and in safe Conservative seats; Bromley fitted these criteria perfectly.

[edit] Results

On a much-reduced turnout, Campbell held the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of 1,606 votes. Redwood came third with 27.2% of the votes, a setback for the Empire Crusade which also failed to win the Westminster St George's by-election the following March.

Ironically for a campaign that sought to turn the Conservative Party to the right, the split vote almost allowed a Liberal victory. Fordham came second with 11,176 votes. Parallels can be seen between this by-election and the Bromley and Chislehurst by-election, 2006, which was almost won by the Liberal Democrats after the intervention of an another right-wing Conservative pressure group, the UK Independence Party.

At the 1931 general election, Campbell would hold the seat with a majority over Labour of over 37,000 (67%). As part of the pact agreed by the parties in the National Government, he was not opposed by a Liberal candidate; the United Empire Party by this time had become defunct. Campbell would serve until his death in office in 1945.

[edit] Votes

[edit] See also

• Bromley (UK Parliament constituency)
• Bromley
• List of United Kingdom by-elections

[edit] References

• Craig, F. W. S. [1969] (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, 3rd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• Ball, Stuart [1988]. Baldwin and the Conservative Party. ISBN 0-300-03961-1.