Hanley (UK Parliament constituency)

Hanley
Former Borough constituency
for the House of Commons
County Staffordshire
1885–1950
Number of members One
Replaced by Stoke-on-Trent Central
Created from Stoke-upon-Trent

Hanley was a borough constituency in Staffordshire which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1885 and 1950. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.

History

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election. Before this, since 1832 a parliamentary borough of Stoke-upon-Trent had existed, covering almost the whole of what is now the Stoke-on-Trent conurbation and electing 2 MPs. In 1885 this was split into two constituencies electing a single member each, Stoke-upon-Trent in the south and Hanley in the north. Hanley became a parliamentary borough in its own right, and shortly afterwards also became a county borough.

The Hanley constituency in the 1885-1918 period included Burslem as well as Hanley itself, and was one of the most populous urban constituencies in the country, with more than 100,000 inhabitants by the time of the First World War. Its main economic base was pottery, though both towns included substantial numbers of coal miners as well as pottery workers. Predominantly working class, it could be normally be considered a safe Liberal seat; however, the Conservatives managed a narrow victory as part of their national landslide in 1900, perhaps helped by lack of enthusiasm among the potters for the Liberal candidate, Enoch Edwards, who was one of the leaders of the miners' union. Edwards convincingly recaptured the seat in 1906, and with the rest of his union joined the Labour Party in 1909. At the by-election after his death, however, the Liberals regained the seat with the Labour candidate a poor third.

By the time of the general election of 1918, the county borough of Hanley had been absorbed into an enlarged county borough of Stoke-on-Trent, and in the boundary changes implemented in that year the same process took place at parliamentary level. The new parliamentary borough of Stoke-on-Trent was accorded three seats in place of the two which the area had had since 1885, and was divided into three single-member constituencies of which Stoke-on-Trent, Hanley was one. The new division was smaller than the old constituency, Burslem now having a seat of its own, and quickly became a safe Labour seat, though the Conservatives won it in their landslide year of 1931.

Hanley was abolished for the 1950 general election, being largely replaced by the new Stoke-on-Trent Central constituency.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMemberParty
1885 William Woodall Liberal
1900 Arthur Howard Heath Conservative
1906 Enoch Edwards Lib-Lab
1909 Labour
1912 by-election Robert Leonard Outhwaite Liberal
1918 James Andrew Seddon Coalition NDP
1922 Myles Harper Parker Labour
1924 Samuel Clowes Labour
1928 by-election Arthur Hollins Labour
1931 Harold Keates Hales Conservative
1935 Arthur Hollins Labour
1945 Barnett Stross Labour
1950 constituency abolished

Elections

Election in the 1910s

Enoch Edwards
General Election January 1910: Hanley[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Enoch Edwards 9,199 63.9 -4.3
Conservative George Herman Rittner 5,202 36.1 +4.3
Majority 27.8 -8.6
Turnout 87.1 +3.7
Labour hold Swing -4.3
General Election December 1910: Hanley[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Enoch Edwards 8,343 64.2 +0.3
Conservative George Herman Rittner 4,658 35.8 -0.3
Majority 3,685 28.4 +0.6
Turnout 78.6 -8.5
Labour hold Swing +0.3
RL Outhwaite
Hanley by-election, 1912[3]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Robert Leonard Outhwaite 6,647 46.4 n/a
Conservative George Herman Rittner 5,993 41.8 +6.0
Labour Samuel Finney 1,694 11.8 -52.4
Majority 654 4.6 33.0
Turnout 85.1 +6.5
Liberal gain from Labour Swing n/a

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.

General Election 14 December 1918: Hanley[4]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
National Democratic James Andrew Seddon 8,032 40.4 n/a
Labour Myles Harper Parker 7,697 38.7 +26.9
Independent Liberal Robert Leonard Outhwaite 2,703 13.6 -32.8
Liberal Leonard Lumsden Grimwade 1,459 7.3 -39.1
Majority 335 1.7 n/a
Turnout 58.9 -26.2
National Democratic gain from Liberal Swing

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Hanley[5]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Myles Harper Parker 10,742 48.8 +10.1
National Liberal James Andrew Seddon 6,312 28.7 -11.7
Liberal John Howard Whitehouse 4,942 22.5 +15.2
Majority 4,430 20.1 21.8
Turnout 67.4 +8.5
Labour gain from National Democratic Swing +10.9
General Election 1923: Hanley [6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Myles Harper Parker 11,508 53.3 +4.5
Unionist James Andrew Seddon 5,817 26.9 -1.8
Liberal Mrs Ada R Moody 4,268 19.8 -2.7
Majority 5,691 26.4 +6.3
Turnout 63.7 -3.7
Labour hold Swing +3.1
General Election 1924: Hanley[7]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Samuel Clowes 13,527 53.0 -0.3
Unionist Frank Collis 11,976 47.0 +20.1
Majority 1,554 6.0 -20.4
Turnout 73.5 +9.8
Labour hold Swing -10.2
Hanley by-election, 1928[8]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 15,136 60.2 +7.2
Unionist Alfred Arthur Hinchcliffe Denville 6,604 26.3 -20.7
Liberal Walter Meakin 3,390 13.5 n/a
Majority 8,532 33.9 +27.9
Turnout 69.9 -3.6
Labour hold Swing +14.0
General Election 1929: Hanley[9]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 20,785 62.1 +1.9
Unionist Eric Errington 9,022 26.9 +0.6
Liberal Charles Frederick White 3,696 11.0 -2.5
Majority 11,763 35.2 +1.3
Turnout 72.5 +2.6
Labour hold Swing +0.6

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Hanley[10]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Harold Keates Hales 18,262
Labour Arthur Hollins 15,245
Commonwealth Land Party James William Graham Peace 946
Majority
Turnout
Conservative gain from Labour Swing
General Election 1935: Hanley[11]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Arthur Hollins 17,211
Conservative Harold Keates Hales 15,880
Majority
Turnout
Labour gain from Conservative 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;

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1945: Hanley[13]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Labour Barnett Stross 21,915
Conservative JPAL Doran 10,313
Majority
Turnout
Labour hold Swing

References

  1. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, F W S Craig (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
  2. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, F W S Craig (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
  3. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, F W S Craig (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
  4. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, F W S Craig (Glasgow: Political Reference Publications, 1969)
  5. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  6. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  7. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  8. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  9. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  10. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  11. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  12. ↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
  13. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
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