1930 Bromley by-election

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

Vacancy

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

Electoral history

General election 1929: Bromley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Cuthbert James	25,449	47.2
	Liberal	Wilfred Gurney Fordham	18,372	34.1
	Labour	Albert Edwin Ashworth	10,105	18.7
Majority			6,077	13.1
Turnout			53,926
	Conservative hold		Swing

Candidates

The Conservative candidate was Edward 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 Party ran 27 year-old Wilfred Gurney Fordham of Mill Vale, Bromley.^[1] Fordham was a barrister, called by the Inner Temple in 1929.^[2] He was educated at St George's School, Harpenden, and Magdalene College, Cambridge. He had been the Liberal candidate here at the 1929 general election.^[3]

The Labour candidate was Albert Edwin 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.

Result

On a much-reduced turnout, Campbell held the seat for the Conservatives with a majority of 1,606 votes. Redwood came third with 24.1% 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.

By-election 1930: Bromley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Edward Campbell	12,782	32.4	-14.8
	Liberal	Wilfred Gurney Fordham	11,176	28.4	-5.7
	United Empire Party	V C Redwood	9,483	24.1	New
	Labour	Albert Edwin Ashworth	5,942	15.1	-3.6
Majority			1,606	4.0	-9.1
Turnout			39,383
	Conservative hold		Swing

Aftermath

Following the formation of the National Government, the Liberals in chose not to run a candidate at the 1931 general election, Campbell would hold the seat with a majority over Labour of over 37,000 (67%). The United Empire Party by this time had become defunct. Campbell would serve until his death in office in 1945. Fordham did not contest another parliamentary election for 29 years when he ran as the Labour Party candidate at Wycombe^[4]

See also

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

References

1. The Liberal Year Book, 1928
2. The Times House of Commons, 1959
3. The Times House of Commons, 1929
4. The Times House of Commons, 1959

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Ball, Stuart (1988). Baldwin and the Conservative Party. London. ISBN 0-300-03961-1.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)