Seaham (UK Parliament constituency)
Seaham | |
---|---|
Former County constituency for the House of Commons |
|
1918–1950 | |
Number of members | one |
Seaham was a parliamentary constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was in existence between 1918 and 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Incorporating a lot of the mining area of the eastern part of County Durham around Seaham, it has a history of strong Labour Party support.
Contents
History
In the so-called Coupon Election of 1918, Major Evan Hayward was issued a Coalition 'coupon'. Hayward however repudiated the 'coupon' and stood as a Liberal and was elected. The following general election, in 1922, Sidney Webb, an early socialist and author of the Labour Party's then-new constitution, was returned. Webb was easily re-elected in 1923 and 1924. Sidney Webb was raised to the peerage and his successor in the parliamentary constituency was Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of the Labour Party at the time. At the 1929 general election, MacDonald won and for the second time became Prime Minister over a minority Labour administration.
The economic crisis after 1929 led to a political crisis in mid-1931 and MacDonald failed to secure agreement in cabinet for his proposed cuts in 'outdoor relief' for the unemployed. MacDonald went to see King George V who persuaded him to form a National Government. In the General Election that followed MacDonald stood in Seaham as National Labour and was comfortably elected and continued to serve as a Prime Minister of a National Government that was predominantly Conservative-supported.
MacDonald retired as Prime Minister in 1935 but remained in the Cabinet. In the general election of 1935 he was resoundingly defeated at Seaham by Emanuel Shinwell, the official candidate of the Labour Party. Shinwell was re-elected in the Labour landslide at the 1945 election, and served as MP for Easington, the constituency that replaced Seaham after 1950.
Members of Parliament
Election | Member | Party | |
---|---|---|---|
1918 | Evan Hayward | Liberal | |
1922 | Sidney Webb | Labour | |
1929 | Rt Hon Ramsay Macdonald | Labour | |
1931 | National Labour | ||
1935 | Manny Shinwell | Labour | |
1950 | constituency abolished |
Elections
Elections in the 1910s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | Maj. Evan Hayward | 12,754 | 58.7 | ||
Labour | John James Lawson | 8,988 | 41.3 | ||
Majority | 3,766 | 17.4 | |||
Turnout | 59.2 | ||||
Liberal hold | Swing |
- Hayward had been issued with the "coalition coupon", but repudiated it.
Elections in the 1920s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Sidney James Webb | 20,203 | 59.9 | ||
Unionist | Thomas Andrews Bradford | 8,315 | 24.6 | ||
Liberal | Evan Hayward | 5,247 | 15.5 | ||
Majority | 11,888 | 35.3 | |||
Turnout | 81.9 | ||||
Labour gain from Liberal | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Sidney James Webb | 21,281 | 71.3 | ||
Unionist | Ronald Deane Ross | 8,546 | 28.7 | ||
Majority | 12,735 | 42.6 | |||
Turnout | 71.3 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Rt Hon. Sidney James Webb | 22,399 | 65.5 | ||
Unionist | Ronald Deane Ross | 11,775 | 34.5 | ||
Majority | 10,624 | 31.0 | |||
Turnout | 78.8 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald | 35,615 | 72.5 | ||
Unionist | William Arthur Fearnley-Whittingstall | 6,821 | 13.9 | ||
Liberal | Henry Augustus Haslam | 5,266 | 10.7 | n/a | |
Communist | Harry Pollitt | 1,451 | 2.9 | n/a | |
Majority | 28,794 | 58.6 | |||
Turnout | 84.2 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |
Elections in the 1930s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Labour | Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald | 28,978 | 55.01 | n/a | |
Labour | William Coxon | 23,027 | 43.71 | ||
Communist | George Lumley | 677 | 1.29 | ||
Majority | 5,951 | 11.30 | |||
Turnout | 86.66 | ||||
National Labour gain from Labour | Swing |
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Emanuel Shinwell | 38,380 | 68.22 | ||
National Labour | Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald | 17,882 | 31.78 | ||
Majority | 20,498 | 36.43 | |||
Turnout | 86.32 | ||||
Labour gain from National Labour | Swing |
General Election 1939/40
Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;
- Labour: Emanuel Shinwell[5]
- Conservative:
Elections in the 1940s
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Emanuel Shinwell | 42,942 | 80.08 | ||
Conservative | Maurice Victor MacMillan | 10,685 | 19.92 | ||
Majority | 32,257 | 60.15 | |||
Turnout | 79.80 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |
References
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- Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)[self-published source][better source needed]
See also
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
---|---|---|
Preceded by | Constituency represented by the Prime Minister 1929–1935 |
Succeeded by Bewdley |
- ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
- ↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
- Pages with reference errors
- Pages with broken file links
- Accuracy disputes from March 2012
- Articles lacking reliable references from March 2012
- Wikipedia articles incorporating an LRPP-MP template with two unnamed parameters
- Parliamentary constituencies in County Durham (historic)
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies established in 1918
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies disestablished in 1950
- United Kingdom Parliamentary constituencies represented by a sitting Prime Minister