Spennymoor (UK Parliament constituency)

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

Spennymoor was a county constituency centred on the town of Spennymoor in County Durham. 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.

History

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Samuel Galbraith	Liberal
	1922	Joseph Batey	Labour
	1942 b-e	James Murray	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Spennymoor[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	Samuel Galbraith	9,443	53.5	n/a
	Labour	Joseph Batey	8,196	46.5	n/a
Majority			1,247	7.0	n/a
Turnout			17,639		n/a
	Liberal hold		Swing	n/a

• Galbraith was sponsored by the Durham Miners' Association

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Spennymoor[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	13,766	50.3
	Unionist	Robert Anthony Eden	7,567	27.6	n/a
	Liberal	Thomas Edward Wing	6,046	22.1
Majority			6,199	22.7
Turnout				81.2
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1923: Spennymoor [3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	15,567	65.7	+15.4
	Unionist	William Appleby	8,116	34.3	+6.7
Majority			7,451	31.4	+8.7
Turnout				69.7	-11.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+4.3

General Election 1924: Spennymoor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	17,211
	Unionist	Herbert Conyers Surtees	10,101
Majority			7,110
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1929: Spennymoor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	20,858	71.8
	Unionist	Francis Page Gourlay	8,202	28.2
Majority			12,656	43.6
Turnout			29,060
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Spennymoor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	18,072
	Conservative	Michael Dodds McCarthy	14,072
Majority			4,000
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1935: Spennymoor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Joseph Batey	21,473
	Conservative	Michael Dodds McCarthy	8,696
Majority			12,777
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Labour: Joseph Batey
• Conservative:

Spennymoor by-election, 1942
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Dixon Murray	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1945: Spennymoor
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	James Dixon Murray	22,587		n/a
	Conservative	Frank Douglas Nicholson	7,510		n/a
	Independent	Charles J French Savill	2,222		n/a
Majority					n/a
Turnout					n/a
	Labour hold		Swing	n/a

References

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