Bolton by-election, 1912

The Bolton by-election, 1912 was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Bolton in Lancashire on 23 November 1912. The seat had become vacant when George Harwood, the sitting Liberal Party member in this two-member constituency, died. There was an unexpectedly heavy turnout of about 90%.

Result

At the previous general election in December 1910, the two members elected were George Harwood for the Liberals (who had held the seat since 1895) and A. H. Gill for the Labour Party. There had been an arrangement between the Labour and Liberal parties in this seat since the time of the 1906 election when Gill was first returned and Labour agreed not to stand a candidate in the by-election and gave implicit support to Taylor's candidacy with a manifesto issued with the authority of the Bolton Trades Council warning of a "Tory conspiracy to smash the trade unions". As reported in The Times on 25 November 1912, “It is probable that this manifesto had the effect of turning the full tide of the Labour vote in favour of the Liberal candidate. And the Labour vote decided the election.” Even the defeated Unionist candidate agreed that the Labour vote went solidly to the Liberals because of their “distorted” version of Tariff Reform. The winning candidate put his victory down to "the unalterable determination of the working people of Lancashire to have nothing to do with Tariff Reform", which he predicted would raise the price of food and "bring starvation again into [working class] homes".

Other by-elections in 1912 had produced a few seats changing hands but no significant anti-government feeling appears discernible in the results. In Bolton, despite the decrease in Liberal vote and majority, the local Liberals seemed genuinely pleased at retaining a four figure majority.

References

The Times report of the Bolton by-election, 25 November 1912