William Pringle (Liberal MP)

William Mather Rutherford Pringle (22 January 1874 – 1 April 1928) was a Liberal Party politician in the United Kingdom who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1910 to 1918 and again from 1922 to 1924.

William Pringle

Pringle was educated at Glasgow University and was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in 1904.

Pringle's son, also William Pringle later became a politician and trade unionist.[1]

Political career

He first stood for parliament at the 1906 elections;

General election 1906: Glasgow Camlachie [2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Unionist	Alexander Cross	3,119	36.4
	Liberal	William Pringle	2,871	33.5
	Labour	Joseph Burgess	2,568	30.0
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal Unionist hold		Swing

Pringle was elected as member for Lanarkshire North West in January 1910. It was an exceptional result as it was one of only a handful of gains made by the Liberal party at those elections, and achieved, despite the presence of a Labour candidate.

General election Jan 1910: North West Lanarkshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Pringle	8,422
	Conservative	William Mitchell-Thomson	7,528
	Labour	Robert Small	1,718
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing

General election Dec 1910: North West Lanarkshire [3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Pringle	9,315
	Conservative	Arthur Stanley Pringle	8,486
Majority
Turnout
	Liberal hold		Swing

In 1914, as a back-bench Liberal MP, he supported Britain going to war in Europe but he opposed the introduction of Conscription being planned by Asquith. Although Pringle remained a supporter of the party led by Asquith, he was very critical of the party leader during the war. After the war, he returned to being a strong supporter of Asquith. He was described as "one of the ablest Parliamentary tacticians of the 20th Century" and also as "one of the most intransigeant and pertinacious of anti-Lloyd George Liberals".[4] In 1916, when Lloyd George took over as Prime Minister, Pringle, along with James Hogge, became the most vocal critics of the Prime Minister from the Liberal benches. After the war, the Pringle-Hogge partnership ended when Pringle became a loyal supporter of Asquith, while Hogge looked to Lloyd George for peacetime inspiration.[5] His Lanarkshire seat was abolished as part of the boundary changes for the 1918 elections, so he had to look for a new seat. Standing as a Liberal without the support from the Coalition government, he unsuccessfully contested Glasgow Springburn at the 1918 general election

General election 1918: Glasgow Springburn [6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Unionist	F. A. Macquisten	10,786	52.7	N/A
	Labour	George Hardie	7,996	39.1	N/A
	Liberal	William Pringle	1,669	8.2	N/A
Majority			2,790	13.6	N/A
Turnout			20,451	60.9	N/A
	Coalition Unionist win (new seat)

He sought a return to parliament at Rusholme at a by-election in 1919. During the Rusholme by-election, he declared for a Capital Levy which was not party policy.[7]

1919 Manchester Rusholme by-election Electorate 30,421

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Henry Thorpe	9,394	45.7	-20.4
	Labour	Robert Dunstan	6,412	31.2	+15.6
	Liberal	William Pringle	3,923	19.1	-0.2
	National	Roger Bowan Crewdson	815	4.0	n/a
Majority			2,982	14.5	-31.3
Turnout				67.5
	Unionist hold		Swing

Still keen to return to parliament, he fought another by-election;

1921 Penistone by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	William Gillis	8,560	36.2
	Liberal	William Pringle	7,984	33.7
	Coalition Liberal	James Peace Hinchcliffe	7,123	30.1
Majority			576	2.5
Turnout			23,667	71.7
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

At the 1922 general election he was elected as Member of Parliament for Penistone in Yorkshire, defeating the sitting Labour MP William Gillis, who had narrowly beaten Pringle to win the seat at a by-election in 1921.

General election 1922: Penistone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Pringle	8,924	35.8
	Labour	William Gillis	8,382	33.7
	Unionist	Charles Hodgkinson	7,600	30.5
Majority			542	2.1
Turnout			24,906	73.1
	Liberal hold		Swing

Pringle held the seat in 1923,

General election 1923: Penistone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	William Pringle	9,164	36.9
	Labour	Rennie Smith	8,329	33.5
	Unionist	Charles Hodgkinson	7,369	29.6
Majority			835	3.4
Turnout			24,862	71.8
	Liberal hold		Swing

By 1924 he had become a member of Asquith's Liberal Shadow Cabinet, and he was a vocal critic of the Labour Government, accusing it of not getting ahead with reforming measures.[8] He was defeated at the 1924 general election by Labour's Rennie Smith;

General election 1924: Penistone

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rennie Smith	10,997	38.5
	Unionist	Charles Hodgkinson	9,718	38.5
	Liberal	William Pringle	7,799	27.4
Majority			1,279	4.4
Turnout			28,514	80.6
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

After his election defeat in 1924, Pringle led Liberal candidate criticisms of Lloyd George for failing to make sufficient money from the Lloyd George Fund available to help the Liberal campaign.[9] He helped to form the Liberal and Radical Candidates Association, becoming its inaugural Chairman and argued that this body should be part of the process in electing the next Chairman of the Liberal Parliamentary party. He hoped that this would help prevent Lloyd George taking that position but Asquith, now out of parliament, did not support his proposal and Lloyd George took over as Chairman.[10] He stood in the 1925 Ayr Burghs by-election, but finished a poor third

1925 Ayr Burghs by-election[11]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Thomas Moore	11,601
	Labour	P.J. Dollan	9,787
	Liberal	William Pringle	4,656
Majority
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

After Lloyd George took over as Leader from Asquith, Pringle put his efforts into a newly created body called the Liberal Council, which sought to rally those in the Liberal Party who opposed Lloyd George.[12] He did not stand for Parliament again.

References

1. David E. Martin, "Pringle, William Joseph Sommerville", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.II, pp.312–313
2. Whitaker's Almanack, 1907
3. Debrett's House of Commons and Judicial Bench, 1916
4. Trial by Ballot, by Ivor Davies [1950]
5. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson [1966]
6. Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
7. Trial by Ballot, by Ivor Davies [1950]
8. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson [1966]
9. Tempestuous Journey by Frank Owen [1954]
10. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson [1966]
11. The Times, 13 June 1925
12. The Downfall of the Liberal Party by Trevor Wilson [1966]

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Pringle
• Parliamentary Archives, The Political Papers of William Mather Rutherford Pringle, MP