1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election

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28 November 1919

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Candidate	Nancy Astor	W.T. Gay	Isaac Foot
Party	Unionist	Labour	Liberal
Popular vote	14,495	9,292	4,139
Percentage	51.9%	33.3%	14.8%

MP before election

Waldorf Astor
Unionist

Subsequent MP

Nancy Astor
Unionist

The 1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 November 1919 for the British House of Commons constituency of Sutton in the city of Plymouth, Devon.

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Waldorf Astor, succeeded the peerage as the second Viscount Astor on the death of his father on 18 October 1919.

Astor had held the seat since the 1918 general election, and its predecessor Plymouth since the December 1910 general election.

Candidates

The Conservative Party selected as its candidate Astor's wife Nancy, Lady Astor. She was also the candidate of the Coalition Government.
The Asquithian Liberals stood Isaac Foot, who had served on Plymouth City Council and had previously contested Totnes and Bodmin.
W. T. Gay stood for Labour, having done so in the 1918 election. Thomas William Mercer again served as his agent.

Result

Lady Astor retained the seat. She became the first woman to take up her seat in the Commons (the first woman to be elected, Countess Markievicz, the Sinn Féin MP for Dublin St Patrick's, refused to take her seat).

Votes

Plymouth Sutton by-election, 1919
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Unionist	Nancy Astor	14,495	51.9	−14.0
	Labour	William Thomas Gay	9,292	33.3	+12.7
	Liberal	Isaac Foot	4,139	14.8	+1.3
Majority			5,203	18.6	−26.7
Turnout			27,926
	Unionist hold		Swing	-13.3
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

General election 1918: Plymouth Sutton
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	Unionist	Waldorf Astor	17,091	65.9
	Labour	William Thomas Gay	5,334	20.6
	Liberal	Sidney Ransom	3,488	13.5
Majority			11,757	45.3
Turnout			25,913	59.6
	Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

References

Craig, F. W. S. (1983) . British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "P" (part 2)

"Centre for Advancement of Women in Politics". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2010.
Joyce Bellamy, "Mercer, Thomas William (1884-1947)", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.I, pp.238-239

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1919 Plymouth Sutton by-election

Candidates

Result

Votes

See also

References