Newport (Monmouthshire) (UK Parliament constituency)

Newport
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Newport East and Newport West
Created from	Monmouth Boroughs

Newport was a borough constituency in Monmouthshire from 1918 to 1983. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.

The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and abolished with the creation of the Newport East and Newport West constituencies. The Representation of the People Act enfranchised the county borough of Newport as a parliamentary borough returning one member. Previously, the borough was represented as part of the Monmouth Boroughs constituency, which also covered Monmouth and Usk.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Lewis Haslam	Coalition Liberal
	1922 by-election	Reginald George Clarry	Conservative
	1929	James Walker	Labour
	1931	Sir Reginald George Clarry	Conservative
	1945 by-election	Ronald Bell	Conservative
	1945	Peter Freeman	Labour
	1956 by-election	Sir Frank Soskice	Labour
	1966	Roy Hughes	Labour
1983		constituency abolished: see Newport East and Newport West

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Lewis Haslam

General Election 1918
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Lewis Haslam	14,080	56.4	N/A
	Labour	John William Bowen	10,234	41.0	N/A
	Independent Democrat	Bertie Pardoe-Thomas	647	2.6	N/A
Majority			3,846	15.4	N/A
Turnout				62.2	N/A
	Liberal win (new seat)

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

Newport by-election, 1922
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald George Clarry	13,515	40.00	N/A
	Labour	John William Bowen	11,425	33.8	-7.2
	Liberal	William Lynden Moore	8,841	26.2	-30.2
Majority			2,090	6.2	N/A
Turnout				79.2	17
	Unionist gain from Coalition Liberal		Swing	N/A

• Clarry stood on a platform of opposition to the Coalition Government. Moore was also opposed to the Coalition and called for a reunited Liberal Party.

General Election 1922
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald George Clarry	19,019	54.3	+14.3
	Labour	John William Bowen	16,000	45.7	+11.9
Majority			3,019	8.6	+2.4
Turnout				82.1	+2.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Newport
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald George Clarry	14,424	39.5	-14.8
	Labour	John William Bowen	14,100	38.6	-7.1
	Liberal	Capt. H. Davies	8,015	21.9	n/a
Majority			324	0.9	-7.7
Turnout				85.2	+3.1
	Unionist hold		Swing	-3.8

General Election 1924
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Reginald George Clarry	20,426	52.8	+13.3
	Labour	John William Bowen	18,263	47.2	+9.6
Majority			2,163	5.6	+4.7
Turnout				85.7	+0.5
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Newton [1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Young	18,176	60.5
	Unionist	Reginald Clare Essenhigh	11,887	39.5
Majority			6,289	21.0
Turnout			30,063
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Reginald George Clarry	27,829	59.1	+25.6
	Labour	James Walker	19,238	40.9	+1.4
Majority			8,591	18.2	N/A
Turnout			47,067	82.5	-1.3
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+12.0

General Election 1935
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Reginald George Clarry	23,300	51.7	−7.4
	Labour	Peter Freeman	21,755	48.3	+7.4
Majority			1,545	3.4	−14.8
Turnout			45,055	79.4	-3.1
	Conservative hold		Swing	−7.4

Elections in the 1940s

Newport by-election, 1945
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ronald McMillan Bell	16,424	54.5	2.8
	Ind. Labour Party	Robert Edwards	13,722	45.5	N/A
Majority			2,702	9.0	+5.6
Turnout			40,146	50.0	-29.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.4

General Election 1945
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	23,845	54.2	N/A
	Conservative	Lt-Com. Ronald McMillan Bell	14,754	33.6	-20.9
	Liberal	Maj. William Robert Crawshay	5,362	12.2	N/A
Majority			9,091	20.6	N/A
Turnout			43,961	72.8	22.8
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	31,858	51.0	-3.2
	Conservative	Ivor Thomas	21,866	35.0	+1.4
	Liberal	William John Owen	8,761	14.0	+1.8
Majority			9,992	16.0	-4.6
Turnout				87.9	+15.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	32,883	52.8	+1.8
	Conservative	Thomas Esmôr Rhys Rhys-Roberts	24,166	38.8	+3.8
	Liberal	William John Owen	5,247	8.4	-5.6
Majority			8,717	14.0	-2.0
Turnout				86.3	-1.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Peter Freeman	31,537	53.7	+0.9
	Conservative	Donald Stewart Box	27,177	46.3	+7.5
Majority			4,360	7.4	-6.6
Turnout				81.6	-4.7
	Labour hold		Swing

Newport by-election, 1956
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank Soskice	29,205	56.3	+2.6
	Conservative	Donald Stewart Box	20,720	39.9	-5.4
	Plaid Cymru	Emrys Pugh Roberts	1,978	3.8	N/A
Majority			8,485	16.3	+8.9
Turnout			51,903
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.0

General Election 1959
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sir Frank Soskice	31,125	53.1	-3.2
	Conservative	Anthony D. Arnold	27,477	46.9	+7.0
Majority			3,648	6.2	-10.1
Turnout				81.6
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sir Frank Soskice	31,962	57.5	+4.4
	Conservative	Peter Temple-Morris	23,649	42.5	-4.4
Majority			8,313	15.0	+8.8
Turnout				79.0	-3.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Royston John Hughes	32,098	59.8	+2.3
	Conservative	Peter Temple-Morris	21,599	40.2	-2.3
Majority			10,499	19.6	+4.6
Turnout				78.8	-0.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Royston John Hughes	30,132	55.7	-4.1
	Conservative	Anthony D. Arnold	22,005	40.7	+0.5
	Plaid Cymru	A. Robert Vickery	1,997	3.7	N/A
Majority			10,499	15.0	-4.6
Turnout				75.5	-3.3
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Royston John Hughes	29,384	48.8	-6.9
	Conservative	G. Price	18,002	29.9	-10.8
	Liberal	J. H. Morgan	11,868	19.7	-2.7
	Plaid Cymru	P. Cox	936	1.6	-2.1
Majority			11,382	18.9	+3.9
Turnout				81.0	+5.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Royston John Hughes	30,069	53.0	+4.2
	Conservative	G. A. L. Price	16,253	28.6	-1.3
	Liberal	J. H. Morgan	9,207	16.2	-3.5
	Plaid Cymru	G. Lee	1,216	2.1	+0.5
Majority			13,816	22.4	+5.5
Turnout				75.6	-4.4
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Royston John Hughes	30,919	51.7	-1.3
	Conservative	G. G. Davies	21,742	36.3	+7.6
	Liberal	A. Lambert	6,270	10.5	-5.7
	National Front	G. R. Woodward	484	0.8	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	A. Robert Vickery	473	0.8	-1.3
Majority			9,177	15.3	-9.1
Turnout				79.7	+4.1
	Labour hold		Swing

See also

• Newport by-election, 1922
• Newport by-election, 1945
• Newport by-election, 1956

References

1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

Sources

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "N" (part 1)
• Craig, F.W.S. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949 (Glasgow; Political Reference Publications, 1969)