The Gravesend by-election, 1947 was a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 held on 26 November 1947 to fill the vacant 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...

 seat of Gravesend

Gravesend (UK Parliament constituency)

Gravesend was a county constituency centred on the town of Gravesend, Kent which returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1868 until it was abolished for the 1983 general election....

. The vacancy arose when the sitting Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP), Garry Allighan

Garry Allighan

Garry Allighan was a British journalist and Labour Party Member of Parliament . His birth name was Ernest Alligan...

, was expelled from the House for making allegations of corruption.

The seat was considered a marginal, having been won at the 1945 general election

United 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...

 from the Conservative

Conservative 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...

s, who had held it since the 1924 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1924

- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...

.

Candidates

Labour selected as its candidate Sir Richard Acland

Richard Acland

Sir Richard Thomas Dyke Acland, 15th Baronet was one of the founding members of the British Common Wealth Party. He had previously been a Liberal Member of Parliament and joined the Labour Party in 1945...

, a baronet

Baronet

A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...

 and former 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...

 MP for Barnstaple

Barnstaple (UK Parliament constituency)

Barnstaple was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Barnstaple in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member.The constituency...

. He had left the Liberal Party in 1942 to found the socialist Common Wealth Party

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:...

, which polled well in war-time

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 by-elections, but won only one seat at the 1945 general election. After his own defeat in Putney

Putney (UK Parliament constituency)

-Elections 1950–1979:-Elections 1918–1945:-Notes and references:...

, where he came third with only 8% of the votes, Acland had joined Labour.

The Conservative Party candidate was Frank K. Taylor. The Liberals, who had polled only 12% of the vote in 1945, did not contest the election.

Result

Labour, who had not lost a seat at a by-election since the general election, had done badly in the recent local elections and were concerned that the unpopularity of their economic policies might cause a loss of the seat. Although their majority was slashed from 7,056 to 1,675 they were satisfied with the result.

Votes