1960 Harrow West by-election

UK Parliamentary by-election

The Harrow West by-election was held on 17 March 1960 due to the suicide of the incumbent Conservative MP, Sir Albert Braithwaite. It was won by the Conservative candidate John Page.

Harrow West by-election, 1960
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	John Page	18,526	55.77	−15.15
	Liberal	John M. Wallbridge	7,100	21.38	New
	Labour	Philip J. Jenkins	6,030	18.15	−10.93
	New Conservative	John E. Dayton	1,560	4.70	New
Majority			11,426	34.39	−7.45
Turnout			33,216	61.60	−17.64
Registered electors			53,756
	Conservative hold		Swing

The Liberal Party was said to be "much encouraged" by their share of the vote according to the acting chair of the Liberal standing committee Mark Bonham Carter who also noted his party had not contested the constituency for ten years. Liberal leader Jo Grimond said that "the result strengens our claim that what the nation wants is a Liberal alternative.

The by-election took place on the same day as the Brighouse and Spenborough by-election which saw the Conservatives gain that seat from the opposition Labour Party. Morgan Phillips, Labour's General Secretary, blamed the poor results on negative press coverage arguing that "a tremendous effort" had been undertaken to develop "an unfavourable image of the party" adding that in his view "Newspaper space seems to have been allocated on political, rather than on news value."

References

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
"1960 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 16 October 2013. Retrieved 15 August 2015.
^ "Government wins Brighouse. Liberal Beats Labour for Second Place at Harrow". The Glasgow Herald. 18 March 1960. p. 1. Retrieved 2 April 2020.

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1960	March: Brighouse and Spenborough Harrow West May: Edinburgh North November: Mid Bedfordshire Bolton East Carshalton Ludlow Petersfield Tiverton Ebbw Vale Blyth
1961	March: Cambridgeshire Colchester High Peak Worcester Birmingham Small Heath April: Paisley Warrington May: Bristol South East November: Manchester Moss Side East Fife Oswestry Glasgow Bridgeton
1962	March: Lincoln Blackpool North Middlesbrough East Orpington Pontefract April: Stockton-on-Tees Derby North May: Montgomeryshire June: Middlesbrough West West Derbyshire July: West Lothian Leicester North East November: Chippenham South Dorset Glasgow Woodside Central Norfolk South Northamptonshire
1963	March: Colne Valley Rotherham Swansea East June: Leeds South July: Deptford West Bromwich August: Stratford Bristol South East Belfast South November: Kinross and Western Perthshire Luton Dundee West December: Manchester Openshaw St Marylebone Sudbury and Woodbridge Dumfriesshire
1964	May: Bury St Edmunds Devizes Rutherglen Winchester June: Faversham Liverpool Scotland
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