GOVERNMENT DEFEATS

Grey River Argus, 2 May 1942, Page 2

GOVERNMENT DEFEATS

BRITISH BYE-ELECTIONS Independents Returned I Aust. & N.Z. Cable LONDON, April 30. There have been gains by two independent candidates in bye-elec-tions. RUGBY. Mr W. J. Brown (Inde.) 9,824 Sir Claud Holbrook (Con.) .. 9,130 WALLASEY. Mr G. L. Reakes (Inde.) .... 12,596 Mr Pennington (Con.) 6,584 Major Leonard Cripps (Inde.,) 1,5 J( Cripps lost his deposit. The Wallasey and Rugby constituencies were formerly held by Conservatives. This setback to the Government, following the defeat ot the Conservative by an Independent in the Grantham bye-election, last month, has perturbed Government supporters. The bye-election resulted from the elevation to the peerage of Captain Margesson and Colonel MooreBrabazon. The Labour Party supported Holbrook for Rugby. Mr Attlee appealed to the people of Wallasey to support Pennington. Mr Reakes is a journalist who resigned from the Labour Party at the time of Munich. The “Evening News” political writer says: The results are a grave warning of popular discontent, not with Mr Churchill, but with the general direction of the war as a whole, also of increasing resentment with the hole-and-corner selection of party candidates by local caucus. The “Star,” in a leader, says; The Wallasey and Rugby bye-elections mark a decline in the political parties’ authority over electorates. They display a political revolt which is one of the healthiest democratic signs of to-day. Reakes and Brown were chosen because they are powerful personalities with minds of their own, set on a sterner, harder and more determined drive for victory.

Mr [Brown declared: I won because the people are sjck and tired of party machines, which took us into the war unprepared, then led us from disaster to disaster. I won because there is deep uneasiness in all classes at the obvious inadequacy of the political set-up. My election is a call to the Government to settle political differences with Russia, achieve unity of strategy and command, and open a second front and win a victory this year.