Cardiff East by-election, 1942
Encyclopedia
The Cardiff East by-election, 1942 was a parliamentary by-election
held for the British House of Commons
constituency of Cardiff East
on 13 April 1942.
MP, Owen Temple-Morris
, as a County Court judge
.
and Liberal
parties, who were participating in a wartime coalition, the party holding a seat would not be opposed by the other two at a by-election. Accordingly it fell to the Cardiff East Conservatives to choose the successor to Temple-Morris and they unanimously selected Sir James Grigg
at the request of Conservative Central Office
.
Grigg had been a career civil servant
, had served at the Treasury
and in India and had risen to become Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the War Office
. In this role he worked closely and effectively with Sir Alan Brooke
the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and in 1942, in an unorthodox move, the Prime Minister
Winston Churchill
appointed Grigg Secretary of State for War
as a replacement for David Margesson
whom he dismissed after the fall of Singapore
to the Japanese. The timing of Temple-Morris’ appointment as a judge, albeit to replace one who had died, thus creating a vacancy in Cardiff East, the appointment of Grigg as War Secretary necessitating his finding a seat in the House of Commons and the ease with which the Cardiff Tories selected Grigg as their candidate at the behest of party headquarters even though, as he admitted himself, he had no previous connection with the constituency or the Conservative Party strongly suggests that the whole process was engineered by the government.
Underlining his lack of party political credentials, Grigg stated that he intended to stand in the by-election as a National candidate without other party label. He said that as a civil servant of 30 years standing it would be unfair to the service to adopt a party affiliation and he said he had none. He declared that he wanted to be the party of national unity at a time of national emergency and that the war had to be won as a nation not by any party ticket.
(ILP), Fenner Brockway
. Brockway was originally a journalist but became active on the left of British politics. He had been a pacifist and was imprisoned during World War I for opposing conscription
and later for being a conscientious objector
but his anti-fascism, particularly his support for the Republicans
in the Spanish Civil War
softened his anti-militarism. He had been Labour MP for Leyton East
from 1929-1931 but after the 1931 general election
the ILP disaffiliated en masse from the Labour Party and formed a separate political party
. Brockway also fought elections unsuccessfully for the ILP at West Ham, Upton in 1934 in a by-election; at Norwich
in the 1935 general election
and at Lancaster
at a by-election in 1941.
’s work. In his election address Grigg wholeheartedly associated himself and his candidacy in the by-election with the fight to rid the world of Nazi and Japanese domination and to build from the wreck of the old world a better and more just new one with equality of opportunity for all. Grigg also fired a similar salvo at Brockway, claiming that he was opposed to Britain’s fighting the war and warned that unless Brockway was defeated decisively, Britain’s enemies would be encouraged.
In his election address, Brockway stated that the policy of a socialist Britain would not be to negotiate with Hitler but to appeal to the peoples of Europe to overthrow him. The ILP campaign emphasised the importance of socialism
and the need for solidarity with the Soviet Union
. However the Communists
were said to be supporting the National candidate and they accused the ILP of trying to sabotage the united front against fascism
. The Labour movement
through the local organising secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, John Dooley, also made clear their support of Grigg in line with official Labour Party policy.
. They also offered voters an opportunity to rebel against the electoral truce as the success of Common Wealth
and Independent
candidates in a number of wartime by-elections showed. However, Cardiff East was not one of these elections. A genuine cross party backing for the non-partisan figure of Sir James Grigg, a patriotic desire to support Grigg in his vital position of Secretary for War and the perception of the ILP as an extremist and anti-war organisation, all combined to ensure that Cardiff East bucked the anti-government trend of a number of mostly later by-elections.
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
held for the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
constituency of Cardiff East
Cardiff East (UK Parliament constituency)
Cardiff East was a parliamentary constituency in Cardiff which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until it was abolished for the 1950 general election.- Members of Parliament :...
on 13 April 1942.
Vacancy
The by-election was caused by the appointment of the sitting National ConservativeConservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
MP, Owen Temple-Morris
Owen Temple-Morris
Sir Owen Temple-Morris, QC was a British barrister and Conservative politician.His son, Peter Temple-Morris, was also a Conservative Member of Parliament , but left the party and later joined Labour Party....
, as a County Court judge
Judiciary of England and Wales
There are various levels of judiciary in England and Wales — different types of courts have different styles of judges. They also form a strict hierarchy of importance, in line with the order of the courts in which they sit, so that judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales are generally...
.
Government
The by-election took place during the Second World War. Under an agreement between the Conservative, LabourLabour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
and Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
parties, who were participating in a wartime coalition, the party holding a seat would not be opposed by the other two at a by-election. Accordingly it fell to the Cardiff East Conservatives to choose the successor to Temple-Morris and they unanimously selected Sir James Grigg
P. J. Grigg
Sir Percy James Grigg PC , better known as Sir P. J. Grigg was a British civil servant who was surprisingly moved from being the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the War Office to become Secretary of State for War, the political head of the same department during the Second World...
at the request of Conservative Central Office
Conservative Campaign Headquarters
Conservative Campaign Headquarters , formerly known as Conservative Central Office is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members....
.
Grigg had been a career civil servant
British Civil Service
Her Majesty's Home Civil Service, also known as the Home Civil Service, is the permanent bureaucracy of Crown employees that supports Her Majesty's Government - the government of the United Kingdom, composed of a Cabinet of ministers chosen by the prime minister, as well as the devolved...
, had served at the Treasury
HM Treasury
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy...
and in India and had risen to become Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the War Office
War Office
The War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
. In this role he worked closely and effectively with Sir Alan Brooke
Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke
Field Marshal The Rt. Hon. Alan Francis Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke, KG, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO & Bar , was a senior commander in the British Army. He was the Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the Second World War, and was promoted to Field Marshal in 1944...
the Chief of the Imperial General Staff and in 1942, in an unorthodox move, the Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
appointed Grigg Secretary of State for War
Secretary of State for War
The position of Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a British cabinet-level position, first held by Henry Dundas . In 1801 the post became that of Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. The position was re-instated in 1854...
as a replacement for David Margesson
David Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson
Henry David Reginald Margesson, 1st Viscount Margesson PC was a British Conservative politician most popularly remembered for his tenure as Government Chief Whip in the 1930s. His reputation was of a stern disciplinarian who was one of the harshest and most effective whips...
whom he dismissed after the fall of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
to the Japanese. The timing of Temple-Morris’ appointment as a judge, albeit to replace one who had died, thus creating a vacancy in Cardiff East, the appointment of Grigg as War Secretary necessitating his finding a seat in the House of Commons and the ease with which the Cardiff Tories selected Grigg as their candidate at the behest of party headquarters even though, as he admitted himself, he had no previous connection with the constituency or the Conservative Party strongly suggests that the whole process was engineered by the government.
Underlining his lack of party political credentials, Grigg stated that he intended to stand in the by-election as a National candidate without other party label. He said that as a civil servant of 30 years standing it would be unfair to the service to adopt a party affiliation and he said he had none. He declared that he wanted to be the party of national unity at a time of national emergency and that the war had to be won as a nation not by any party ticket.
Independent Labour Party
In accordance with the wartime electoral truce, the Labour and Liberal parties declined to stand candidates but Grigg was opposed by a representative of the Independent Labour PartyIndependent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...
(ILP), Fenner Brockway
Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway
Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway , was a British anti-war activist and politician.-Biography:Archibald Fenner Brockway was born in Calcutta, India, which was at that time under British Imperial rule...
. Brockway was originally a journalist but became active on the left of British politics. He had been a pacifist and was imprisoned during World War I for opposing conscription
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and later for being a conscientious objector
Conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, and/or religion....
but his anti-fascism, particularly his support for the Republicans
Second Spanish Republic
The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....
in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
softened his anti-militarism. He had been Labour MP for Leyton East
Leyton East (UK Parliament constituency)
Leyton East was a parliamentary constituency in the Municipal Borough of Leyton, then part of Essex but now in Greater London.It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system.-History:The constituency...
from 1929-1931 but after the 1931 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...
the ILP disaffiliated en masse from the Labour Party and formed a separate political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
. Brockway also fought elections unsuccessfully for the ILP at West Ham, Upton in 1934 in a by-election; at Norwich
Norwich (UK Parliament constituency)
Norwich was a borough constituency which was represented in the House of Commons of England from 1298 to 1707, in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800, and in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 until it was abolished for the 1950 general election...
in the 1935 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...
and at Lancaster
Lancaster (UK Parliament constituency)
Lancaster was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1867, centred on the historic city of Lancaster in north-west England...
at a by-election in 1941.
Issues
The main election issue was the prosecution and conduct of the war. Grigg declared his support for the armed forces and his plans to improve equipment and training and he promised to continue to develop new weapons and devices by involving scientists in the war effort. He urged the press to cease attacks on the military leadership and the performance of the armed forces, accusing those parts of the media who did so of doing HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
’s work. In his election address Grigg wholeheartedly associated himself and his candidacy in the by-election with the fight to rid the world of Nazi and Japanese domination and to build from the wreck of the old world a better and more just new one with equality of opportunity for all. Grigg also fired a similar salvo at Brockway, claiming that he was opposed to Britain’s fighting the war and warned that unless Brockway was defeated decisively, Britain’s enemies would be encouraged.
In his election address, Brockway stated that the policy of a socialist Britain would not be to negotiate with Hitler but to appeal to the peoples of Europe to overthrow him. The ILP campaign emphasised the importance of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and the need for solidarity with the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. However the Communists
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
were said to be supporting the National candidate and they accused the ILP of trying to sabotage the united front against fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. The Labour movement
Labour movement
The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...
through the local organising secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union, John Dooley, also made clear their support of Grigg in line with official Labour Party policy.
The result
Grigg was returned comfortably with 75% of the poll, albeit on the relatively low turnout of 33%. The by-elections of the Second World War showed evidence of the role of the war in initiating a leftward swing in British politics so pointing the way towards the coming electoral landslide for Labour in 1945United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
. They also offered voters an opportunity to rebel against the electoral truce as the success of Common Wealth
Common Wealth Party
The Common Wealth Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. Thereafter, it continued in being, essentially as a pressure group, until 1993.-The war years:...
and Independent
Independent (politician)
In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...
candidates in a number of wartime by-elections showed. However, Cardiff East was not one of these elections. A genuine cross party backing for the non-partisan figure of Sir James Grigg, a patriotic desire to support Grigg in his vital position of Secretary for War and the perception of the ILP as an extremist and anti-war organisation, all combined to ensure that Cardiff East bucked the anti-government trend of a number of mostly later by-elections.
The votes
See also
- List of United Kingdom by-elections
- United Kingdom by-election recordsUnited Kingdom by-election recordsUK by-election records is an annotated list of notable records from UK Parliamentary by-elections. A by-election occurs when a Member of Parliament resigns, dies, or is disqualified or expelled, and an election is held to fill the vacant seat...