1920 Paisley by-election

The Paisley by-election, 1920 was a parliamentary by-election held on 12 February 1920 for the British House of Commons constituency of Paisley in Scotland. It was caused by the death of the constituency's sitting Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) Sir John Mills McCallum.

Electoral history

The result at the last General Election in 1918 was;

General Election 1918: Paisley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Sir John Mills McCallum	7,542	34.0	-30.3
	Co-operative Party	John McLaren Biggar	7,436	33.5	N/A
	National Democratic	John Taylor	7,201	32.5	N/A
Majority			106
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

• No candidate was officially endorsed by the Coalition Government

Asquith’s return

The by-election provided an opportunity for the return to Parliament of H. H. Asquith, the former prime minister who had lost his seat at East Fife at the 1918 general election in the aftermath of the split in the Liberal Party between those who supported the coalition of David Lloyd George with the Conservatives and the supporters of Asquith’s independent Liberals, or ‘Wee Frees.’

Initially, it was widely expected that Biggar, who had nearly won the seat in 1918 and who was endorsed by nine former Liberal MPs, would win.

Asquith had been an opponent of women’s suffrage (women over thirty were given the vote in 1918), and (30 January 1920) thought women voters “hopelessly ignorant, credulous to the last degree, and flickering with gusts of sentiment like a candle in the wind. Then there are some thousands of Irish, who have been ordered by their bosses to vote Labour – as if Labour had ever done or was ever likely to do anything for them”. Asquith directed most of his campaign not against Labour but against the Coalition candidate, whom he thought “a foul-mouthed Tory”. He called for moderation over German reparations, immediate Dominion Status for Ireland (where the Irish War of Independence was currently in progress) and warned of the danger of tariffs being erected, especially by the newly-independent small states of central Europe. Sir John Simon and Lord Buckmaster spoke in his support, as did his daughter Violet who had become an excellent speaker. The “foul-mouthed Tory” lost his deposit, to Asquith’s delight.

The by-election seemed to be a triumph for the Independent Liberals with a majority of 2,834 votes over Labour and a blow for the government.

Result

Paisley by-election, 1920

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Herbert Henry Asquith	14,736	48.4	+14.4
	Co-operative Party	John McLaren Biggar	11,902	39.1	+5.6
	Unionist	James Anderson Dunlop MacKean	3,795	12.5	N/A
Majority			2,834
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Aftermath

The result at the following General Election in 1922 was;

General Election 1922: Paisley

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Rt Hon. Herbert Henry Asquith	15,005	50.5	+2.1
	Labour Co-op	John McLaren Biggar	14,689	49.5	+10.4
Majority			316
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

Further reading

• Jenkins, Roy (1964). Asquith (first ed.). London: Collins. OCLC 243906913.
• Koss, Stephen (1985). Asquith. London: Hamish Hamilton. ISBN 978-0-231-06155-1.
• The Radical Thread: Political Change in Scotland. Paisley Politics, 1885-1924 by Catriona M M MacDonald, Scottish Historical Review, 2000
• Victory at Paisley; Graeme Peters on Asquith’s return to Parliament; Journal of Liberal History, Issue 19, Summer 1998, p14 & 17 http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/19_peters_victory_at_paisley.pdf
• Hold on, hold out; we are coming; Ian Hunter on the speech made by Lady Violet Bonham Carter on the return of her father to Parliament; Journal of Liberal History, Issue 37, Winter 2002-03 pp 22–25 http://www.liberalhistory.org.uk/uploads/37-Winter%25202002-03.pdf