1940 Bow and Bromley by-election
The 1940 Bow and Bromley by-election, was a parliamentary by-election held on 12 June 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bow and Bromley in the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar in the East End of London.
The seat became vacant when the constituency's Labour member of Parliament (MP), George Lansbury, died on 7 May 1940, aged 81. A leader of the Labour Party, he had held the seat since the 1922 general election, and previously from 1910 to 1912.
Candidates
During World War II, the political parties in the coalition government agreed not to contest by-elections in seats held by the other parties in the coalition. The Labour Party selected as its candidate Charles Key, a local Alderman and leader of the Borough of Poplar. Key was a teacher, who left the classroom when war broke out to become the deputy controller of civil defence in Poplar.
His only opponent was Isabel Brown of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Brown had twice before been a Parliamentary candidate in Scotland (in Kilmarnock and Motherwell); she previously worked in the Ministry of Education in Moscow.
The British Union of Fascists intended to put up Mick Clarke as a candidate; this was abandoned when he became one of the first group of members rounded up under Defence Regulation 18B.[1]
Results
On a reduced turnout, Key held the seat for Labour with 95.8% of the votes. He remained Bow and Bromley's MP until the constituency was abolished for the 1950 general election, when he was elected as MP for the new Poplar constituency. He held that seat until 1964.
Votes
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Charles Key | 11,594 | 95.8 | +18.2 | |
Communist | Isabel Brown | 506 | 4.2 | New | |
Majority | 11,088 | 91.6 | +3.6 | ||
Turnout | 12,100 | 32.4 | −27.1 | ||
Labour hold | Swing |
See also
- 1912 Bow and Bromley by-election
- Bow and Bromley (UK Parliament constituency)
- Lists of United Kingdom by-elections
References
- ^ R. Benewick, Political Violence and Public Order, London: Allan Lane, 1969, p. 294
Bibliography
- Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
- Cazalet-Keir, Thelma (1967) [1967]. From the Wings:An Autobiography (1st ed.). London: The Bodley Head.
- Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages [self-published source] [better source needed]
- v
- t
- e
- January: Combined Scottish Universities
- February: Ross and Cromarty
- March: Dunbartonshire
- Llanelli
- May: Peckham
- June: Lewes
- July: Derby
- Balham and Tooting
- East Grinstead
- October: Birmingham Erdington
- November: Clay Cross
- Preston
- Greenock
- February: St Pancras North
- Manchester Gorton
- Oxford University
- Richmond-upon-Thames
- March: Combined English Universities
- Tonbridge
- Farnham
- April: Stalybridge and Hyde
- Wandsworth Central
- Birmingham West
- May: York
- June: Glasgow Hillhead
- Buckingham
- Plymouth Drake
- Cheltenham
- Hemel Hempstead
- Holland with Boston
- Bewdley
- Ilford
- St Ives
- July: Kingston-upon-Thames
- Chertsey
- North Dorset
- September: Glasgow Springburn
- October: Islington North
- November: Hastings
- January: Farnworth
- February: Pontypridd
- Ipswich
- Combined Scottish Universities
- April: City of London
- Fulham West
- May: Lichfield
- Aylesbury
- June: West Derbyshire
- Stafford
- Barnsley
- July: Willesden East
- October: Oxford
- November: Dartford
- Walsall
- Bridgwater
- Doncaster
- Lewisham West
- Fylde
- December: Kinross and Western Perthshire
- January: East Norfolk
- February: Holderness
- Ripon
- March: Batley and Morley
- Kincardineshire and Western Aberdeenshire
- April: South Ayrshire
- May: Down
- Sheffield Hallam
- Westminster Abbey
- Birmingham Aston
- Southwark North
- Kennington
- July: Caerphilly
- Portsmouth South
- North Cornwall
- Hythe
- Monmouth
- Colne Valley
- August: Brecon and Radnorshire
- October: Fareham
- High Peak
- Clackmannanshire and East Stirlingshire
- Ormskirk
- Ashton-under-Lyne
- November: Macclesfield
- December: Streatham
- Stretford
- Wells
- February: Southampton
- City of London
- Swansea East
- Belfast East
- Southwark Central
- Silvertown
- Cambridge University
- March: Kettering
- City of Chester
- Leeds North East
- April: Argyllshire
- Lonsdale
- Battersea North
- Glasgow Pollok
- May: Brighton
- East Renfrewshire
- Middleton and Prestwich
- June: Spen Valley
- Newcastle North
- Bow and Bromley
- Croydon North
- Wandsworth Central
- Bournemouth
- July: Newcastle West
- Montrose Burghs
- Nottingham Central
- Rochdale
- Wansbeck
- August: Middlesbrough West
- Mitcham
- Heywood and Radcliffe
- September: Bolton
- Manchester Exchange
- Preston
- November: Queen's University of Belfast
- Aldershot
- Southampton
- December: Northampton
- Birmingham Edgbaston
- February: Doncaster
- South Dorset
- Petersfield
- Dunbartonshire
- March: Hitchin
- Bodmin
- Carmarthen
- April: Great Yarmouth
- West Bromwich
- Mansfield
- May: Birmingham King's Norton
- Hornsey
- June: West Dorset
- July: Greenock
- Edinburgh West
- Dudley
- Pontefract
- August: Berwick-upon-Tweed
- September: Scarborough and Whitby
- The Wrekin
- October: Lancaster
- November: Brighton
- Hampstead
- December: Harrow
- Edinburgh Central
- February: North East Derbyshire
- Keighley
- March: Nuneaton
- Manchester Gorton
- Newcastle-under-Lyme
- Wigan
- Grantham
- April: Tavistock
- Cardiff East
- Glasgow Cathcart
- Wallasey
- Rugby
- May: Putney
- Chichester
- June: Llandaff and Barry
- Maldon
- Windsor
- July: Salisbury
- Spennymoor
- August: Rothwell
- Whitechapel and St Georges
- Poplar South
- Sheffield Park
- October: Manchester Clayton
- Ince
- January: Hamilton
- University of Wales
- February: Belfast West
- Ashford
- Antrim
- Midlothian and Peebles
- King's Lynn
- Portsmouth North
- Bristol Central
- Watford
- April: Buckingham
- Eddisbury
- Daventry
- June: The Hartlepools
- Newark
- Birmingham Aston
- July: Burton-on-Trent
- August: Chippenham
- October: St Albans
- Peterborough
- November: Woolwich West
- December: Consett
- Darwen
- Acton
- January: Skipton
- February: Brighton
- West Derbyshire
- Kirkcaldy Burghs
- Sheffield Attercliffe
- Bury St Edmunds
- March: Camberwell North
- April: Clay Cross
- July: Manchester Rusholme
- September: Bilston
- October: Chelsea
- Berwick-upon-Tweed
- Lists of UK by-elections
- 1801–1806
- 1806–1818
- 1818–1832
- 1832–1847
- 1847–1857
- 1857–1868
- 1868–1885
- 1885–1900
- 1900–1918
- 1918–1931
- 1931–1950
- 1950–1979
- 1979–2010
- 2010–present
- Northern Ireland
- Hereditary peers