1945 Smethwick by-election

The Smethwick by-election, 1945 was a by-election held on 1 October 1945 for the British House of Commons constituency of Smethwick in Staffordshire (now in the West Midlands county).

The by-election was caused by the death of the town's newly elected Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), 63-year-old Alfred Dobbs, who was killed in a car accident on 27 July 1945, only one day after his election at the 1945 general election[1] Apart from some MPs who were elected posthumously, Dobbs remains the United Kingdom's shortest-serving MP.

There were only two candidates in the by-election, Labour and Conservative; the Liberal Party had not fielded a candidate in Smethwick since the 1929 general election.

The result was a victory for the Labour candidate Patrick Gordon Walker, who held the seat comfortably with a slightly increased majority on a modestly reduced turnout. Gordon Walker was an MP for nearly 30 years, serving twice as a Cabinet minister.

Votes
By-election 1945: Smethwick [2] [3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Patrick Gordon Walker 19,364 68.8 +2.9
Conservative G.H. Edgar 8,762 31.2 −2.9
Majority 10,602 37.6 +5.8
Turnout 43,020 65.4 −7.0
Labour hold Swing +2.9

References
  1. "M.P. Killed in Car Crash". Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail. 28 July 1945. Retrieved 27 May 2016 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  2. Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
  3. "1945 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 11 August 2015.

See also
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