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1928 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election

1928 election in Great Britain

Field	Value
election_name	1928 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election
type	parliamentary
country	United Kingdom
previous_election	Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1920s
previous_year	1924
next_election	Ashton-under-Lyne (UK Parliament constituency)#Elections in the 1920s
next_year	1929
election_date	29 October 1928
candidate1	Albert Bellamy
image1	[[File:Albert_Bellamy.jpg	65px]]
party1	Labour Party (UK)
popular_vote1	9,567
percentage1	40.6%
swing1	7.8%
candidate2	Gordon Touche
image2	[[File:Sir_Gordon_Touche_1st_Baronet.jpg	65px]]
party2	Unionist Party (UK)
popular_vote2	7,161
percentage2	30.3%
swing2	9.2%
candidate3	William G. Greenwood
image3	[[File:WgGreenwood.jpg	65px]]
party3	Liberal Party (UK)
popular_vote3	6,874
percentage3	29.1%
swing3	1.4%
map_size	250px
title	MP
posttitle	Subsequent MP
before_election	Cornelius Homan
before_party	Unionist Party (UK)
after_election	Albert Bellamy
after_party	Labour Party (UK)

The 1928 Ashton-under-Lyne by-election was held on 29 October 1928. It was notable for having the highest turnout of any Parliamentary by-election in Great Britain.

The election was caused by the bankruptcy of Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Ashton-under-Lyne Cornelius Homan. Although Homan had only represented the constituency since the 1924 general election, Ashton had been represented by Conservatives for many years, and Labour had never taken the seat. However, the Conservatives had never achieved a large majority in the seat, and as both Labour and the Liberal Party had gained several seats in recent by-elections, it was thought that both would mount a strong challenge. As a result, interest in the by-election was high.

Labour stood Albert Bellamy, while the Conservatives stood Gordon Touche, and the Liberals put up William Gilbert Greenwood, an accountant.

Result

The Mayor of Ashton arranged for coloured rockets to be fired from the roof of the town hall when the result was announced, the colour to correspond to that of the winning party. After the fastest ever count – a record which stands to the present day, he did so. This led to some confusion, as their colour was not obvious to all observers, but it soon became apparent that they were yellow – the local Labour Party colour.

Most unusually, the turnout for the by-election was higher than that for the previous general election in the seat, at 89.1% of the electorate. The Liberals picked up a few votes, but Labour gained many more, at the expense of the Conservatives who only just avoided falling into third place.

Bellamy held the seat in the 1929 general election, but he died in 1931, precipitating another by-election, won by the Conservatives. Labour won the seat back in 1935 and have held it ever since. Touche took the safe Conservative constituency of Reigate in 1931, and remained an MP for many years.

References

Chris Cook and John Ramsden, By-Elections in British Politics

References

[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4513703.stm Election results night on the BBC]

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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