1889 Gorton by-election
The 1889 Gorton by-election was a
Vacancy
The seat had become vacant on the death of the sitting Liberal MP Richard Peacock on 3 March 1889. Peacock had held the seat since the 1885 general election.[1]
Candidates
The Liberal Party selected
The Conservatives, who were backed by their Liberal Unionist allies, selected Ernest Hatch. Hatch was aged 29, a wine merchant from London but had been active in the Gorton constituency for his party since June 1888.[2]
Issues
The principal issue of the by-election was
Despite Mather’s plea, it was not possible for all other political questions to be excluded from the campaign. Trade, foreign affairs and the naval building programme also intruded [6] as did the issue of temperance with the main temperance organisations supporting Mather and the brewers backing Hatch.[7]
The result
Mather held the seat for the Liberals with a slightly increased majority of 846 as opposed to Peacock’s 457 at the 1886 general election.[8] This may nevertheless have been something of a disappointment. In the course of the Parliament so far the Liberals had gained nine seats from the Conservatives or Liberal Unionists and one from the Irish Parliamentary Party. They had lost only one seat to the Liberal Unionists (at Doncaster by a very narrow margin).[9] It was reported that the Liberals had been confident of a much larger majority for Mather and that as the numbers of Irish electors in the division was about 1100, without that sectional support the seat might well have been lost.[10]
Mather went on to hold the seat at the
Votes
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | William Mather | 5,155 | 54.5 | ||
Conservative | Ernest Hatch | 4,309 | 45.5 | ||
Majority | 846 | 9.0 | |||
Turnout | 9,464 | 88.7 | |||
Liberal hold | Swing |
References
- ^ The Times, 4 March 1889 p6
- ^ The Times, 9 March 1889 p12
- ^ James Moore, The transformation of urban Liberalism: party politics and urban governance in late 19th century England; Ashgate Publishing, 2006 p81
- ^ The Times, 19 March 1889 p10
- ^ The Times, 11 March 1889 p7
- ^ The Times, 11 March 1889 p7
- ^ The Times, 13 March 1889 p11
- ^ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918; Macmillan, 1974 p317
- ^ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918; Macmillan, 1974 p434
- ^ The Times, 25 March 1889 p6
- ^ F W S Craig, British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918; Macmillan, 1974 p317
- ^ H C G Matthew, Gladstone, 1875-1898; Clarendon Press, 1995 p328
- Conservative Central Office, page 147 (171 in web page), Lancashire South East