- South Norfolk by-election, 1920
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The South Norfolk by-election, 1920 was a by-election held on 27 July 1920 for the British House of Commons constituency of South Norfolk.
The by-election was triggered by the succession to the peerage of the serving Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament (MP), William Cozens-Hardy.
South Norfolk had been a safe Liberal seat since Arthur Soames's victory in the 1898 by-election, but the Liberal vote was now divided. The Coalition Liberal candidate was J H Batty, who received the support of the Coalition leaders, David Lloyd George and Andrew Bonar Law. C. H. Roberts ran as an Independent Liberal. They were joined by a strong Labour Party candidate, George Edwards, a former agricultural labourer who had founded the National Union of Land Workers, and who had polled around a third of the vote as the only other candidate in the 1918 general election.
The result was a clear win for Edwards, who picked up around 2000 votes on a very similar turnout to the general election, and exploited the split in the Liberal vote, with Batty recommending those of his supporters who could not bring themselves to vote for the Coalition to support Edwards instead.[1] Edwards was defeated in the next election, but held the seat again between 1923 and 1924.
Votes
South Norfolk by-election, 1920 Party Candidate Votes % ±% Labour George Edwards 8,594 45.7 +10.0 Coalition Liberal J. H. Batty 6,476 34.5 −29.8 Liberal C. H. Roberts 3,718 19.8 N/A Majority 2,118 11.2 −17.4 Turnout 18,788 58.5% Labour gain from Coalition Liberal Swing References
- ^ The Times, 26 July 1920
- The Times, 10 August 1920
See also
- South Norfolk by-election, 1898
- South Norfolk by-election, 1955
- List of United Kingdom by-elections (1918–1931)
- South Norfolk constituency
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- Elections in Norfolk
- 1920 in England
- 1920 elections in the United Kingdom
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