BY-ELECTION IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25274, 28 August 1947, Page 7

BY-ELECTION IN BRITAIN

POLITICAL INTEREST IN EDGE HILL SEAT POSSIBLE INDICATION OF OPINION (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, August 27. The by-election for the Edge Hill district of Liverpool, which will take place on September 11, is likely to arouse considerable interest. It is to fill the vacancy caused by the death of the Labour member, Dr. Richard Clitherow.

It will be the twenty-eighth byelection held since the Labour Government took office* In all 28, Labour candidates have retained Labour seats or Conservatives have held to Conservative seats.

Edge Hill, however, is a district with a considerable proportion of middleclass voters, ana cannot be described either as a safe Labour or safe Conservative seat. Before 1923 Edge Hill was always considered a Conservative stronghold, but in that year it was won by Labour. In 1931 it was one of many Labour seats which swung back to the Conservatives as a reaction against the collapse of the Ramsay MacDonald Government. The Conservatives had a narrow majority of 300 at the following 'election, but in 1945 Dr. Clitherow was elected with a majority of 6000 in a straight-out contest.

There will be five candidates at the by-election—Labour, Conservative, Independent Labour, Liberal, and an Independent. The result is likely to be regarded as an interesting pointer towards present political trends. The Conservatives consider it their best chance so far of breaking Labour’s record of not losing a single seat in a by-election in more than a year of office.