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The 1920 Basingstoke by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Basingstoke on 31 March 1920.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Unionist MP, Auckland Geddes when he was appointed British Ambassador to the United States. He had been MP here since winning the seat in 1917.
The result at the last general election in 1918 was;
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Unionist | Auckland Geddes | 11,218 | 64.1 | |
Independent Labour | A. Close | 6,277 | 35.9 | ||
Majority | 4,941 | 28.2 | |||
Turnout | 17,495 | 55.2 | |||
Unionist hold | Swing | ||||
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. |
Polling Day was set for 31 March 1920. On 26 March nominations closed to confirm that the election would be a three-way contest.
Holbrook received the official endorsement of the Coalition Government in separate letters from Lloyd George and Bonar Law.
Farming was the dominant issue as the seat was mainly agricultural. By the rejection of Judd, the Unionists lost the support of a large section of farmers who threatened either to abstain from voting or to vote Liberal. For the Labour campaign, Round's chief hope lay in the organized farm labourers.[5]
The Unionists held onto the seat with a much reduced majority, while the Liberals won the battle for second place.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
C | Unionist | Arthur Richard Holbrook | 8,515 | 44.2 | -19.9 |
Liberal | Harry Verney | 5,393 | 28.0 | New | |
Labour | James Harry Round | 5,352 | 27.8 | -8.1 | |
Majority | 3,122 | 16.2 | -12.0 | ||
Turnout | 19,260 | 60.0 | +4.8 | ||
Unionist hold | Swing | -5.9 | |||
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government. |
Holbrook defended his seat at the following general election, while Verney moved to contest Skipton. Round did not stand again. The result at the following general election in 1922 was;
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Unionist | Arthur Richard Holbrook | 12,514 | 56.0 | +11.8 | |
Liberal | Reginald Fletcher | 6,780 | 30.4 | +2.4 | |
Labour | Samuel Ledbury | 3,035 | 13.6 | -14.2 | |
Majority | 5,734 | 25.6 | +9.4 | ||
Turnout | 22,329 | 66.9 | +6.9 | ||
Unionist hold | Swing | +4.7 |