Seaham (UK Parliament constituency)

Seaham
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Number of members	one

Seaham was a parliamentary constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was in existence between 1918 and 1950. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. Incorporating a lot of the mining area of the eastern part of County Durham around Seaham, it has a history of strong Labour Party support.

History

In the so-called Coupon Election of 1918, Major Evan Hayward was issued a Coalition 'coupon'. Hayward however repudiated the 'coupon' and stood as a Liberal and was elected. The following general election, in 1922, Sidney Webb, an early socialist and author of the Labour Party's then-new constitution, was returned. Webb was easily re-elected in 1923 and 1924. Sidney Webb was raised to the peerage and his successor in the parliamentary constituency was Ramsay MacDonald, the leader of the Labour Party at the time. At the 1929 general election, MacDonald won and for the second time became Prime Minister over a minority Labour administration.

The economic crisis after 1929 led to a political crisis in mid-1931 and MacDonald failed to secure agreement in cabinet for his proposed cuts in 'outdoor relief' for the unemployed. MacDonald went to see King George V who persuaded him to form a National Government. In the General Election that followed MacDonald stood in Seaham as National Labour and was comfortably elected and continued to serve as a Prime Minister of a National Government that was predominantly Conservative-supported.

MacDonald retired as Prime Minister in 1935 but remained in the Cabinet. In the general election of 1935 he was resoundingly defeated at Seaham by Emanuel Shinwell, the official candidate of the Labour Party. Shinwell was re-elected in the Labour landslide at the 1945 election, and served as MP for Easington, the constituency that replaced Seaham after 1950.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Evan Hayward	Liberal
	1922	Sidney Webb	Labour
	1929	Rt Hon Ramsay Macdonald	Labour
	1931	Rt Hon Ramsay Macdonald	National Labour
	1935	Manny Shinwell	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Seaham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Maj. Evan Hayward	12,754	58.7
	Labour	John James Lawson	8,988	41.3
Majority			3,766	17.4
Turnout				59.2
	Liberal hold		Swing

Hayward had been issued with the "coalition coupon", but repudiated it.

Elections in the 1920s

Sidney Webb

General Election 1922: Seaham^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sidney James Webb	20,203	59.9
	Unionist	Thomas Andrews Bradford	8,315	24.6
	Liberal	Evan Hayward	5,247	15.5
Majority			11,888	35.3
Turnout				81.9
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1923: Seaham ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Sidney James Webb	21,281	71.3	+11.4
	Unionist	Ronald Deane Ross	8,546	28.7	+4.1
Majority			12,735	42.6	+7.3
Turnout				71.3	-10.6
	Labour hold		Swing	+3.6

General Election 1924: Seaham^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rt Hon. Sidney James Webb	22,399	65.5
	Unionist	Ronald Deane Ross	11,775	34.5
Majority			10,624	31.0
Turnout				78.8
	Labour hold		Swing

J.R. MacDonald

General Election 1929: Seaham^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald	35,615	72.5
	Unionist	William Arthur Fearnley-Whittingstall	6,821	13.9
	Liberal	Henry Augustus Haslam	5,266	10.7	n/a
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	1,451	2.9	n/a
Majority			28,794	58.6
Turnout				84.2
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Seaham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Labour	Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald	28,978	55.01	n/a
	Labour	William Coxon	23,027	43.71
	Communist	George Lumley	677	1.29
Majority			5,951	11.30
Turnout				86.66
	National Labour gain from Labour		Swing

General Election 1935: Seaham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emanuel Shinwell	38,380	68.22
	National Labour	Rt Hon. James Ramsay MacDonald	17,882	31.78
Majority			20,498	36.43
Turnout				86.32
	Labour gain from National Labour		Swing

General Election 1939/40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Labour: Emanuel Shinwell^[5]
Conservative:

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Seaham
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Emanuel Shinwell	42,942	80.08
	Conservative	Maurice Victor MacMillan	10,685	19.92
Majority			32,257	60.15
Turnout				79.80
	Labour hold		Swing

References

↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 2)