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The1910 Edinburgh South by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the UKHouse of Commons constituency ofEdinburgh South in Scotland on 29 April 1910.
The by-election was caused by the appointment of the sittingLiberalMP,Arthur DewarKC, who was theSolicitor General for Scotland, as aSenator of the College of Justice.
Dewar had first been elected as MP for Edinburgh South in a by-election in June 1899.[1] He lost the seat narrowly at thegeneral election of 1900 but won it back in1906, holding it inJanuary 1910.[2]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Arthur Dewar | 10,235 | 56.4 | −7.4 | |
| Conservative | Harold B Cox | 7,901 | 43.6 | +7.4 | |
| Majority | 2,334 | 12.8 | −14.8 | ||
| Turnout | 18,136 | 88.8 | +5.4 | ||
| Liberalhold | Swing | -7.4 | |||
The Liberals first choice for the seat was DrEdward Parrott. Parrott, a publisher and author, was chairman of the Edinburgh South Liberal Association and also of the Edinburgh United Liberal Committee.[4] At a meeting on 11 April, the local executive of the Liberal Association met to consider who the candidate should be, assuming Dewar was to be appointed to the College of Justice. Parrott asked for 48 hours to think the offer over[5] but turned it down and the committee instead turned toCharles Lyell a 34-year-old professional politician, as their preferred candidate.[6] Lyell had been MP forEast Dorset from 1904 to January 1910. During that time he served asParliamentary Private Secretary toSir Edward Grey, theForeign Secretary. He switched seats in January 1910, leaving the marginal East Dorset toFreddie Guest (Guest had family connections inthe county) and taking on instead the usuallyUnionist seat ofEdinburgh West, which he failed to gain.[7]
The Unionist candidate in the previous general election had been Harold Cox, an Edinburgh businessman but he ruled himself out as a possible candidate for the by-election on medical advice.[8] The Unionists then turned to 25-year-old Ralph Campbell Glyn, the only son of theBishop of Peterborough whose mother was the sister of theDuke of Argyll.[9] Glyn had been theLiberal Unionist candidate inElginshire and Nairnshire at the January 1910 election.[10]
An early issue in the campaign was the question ofHouse of Lords reform. This had been brought to a head byLloyd George'sPeople's Budget of 1909. Lloyd George's radical tax raising proposals and plans to finance social provisions such as old age pensions meant his budget was rejected by the landed majority in the House of Lords against the convention that the Lords would not reject financialbills. This sparked a constitutional crisis and provoked the January 1910 general election.[11] The issue was therefore still high on the political agenda and Glyn made it the centrepiece of his adoption meeting on 20 April. He said he was in favour of reforming the House of Lords but could not bring himself to attack its recent actions. He said the best party to reform the Lords was what he described as the Constitutional party i.e. the Conservatives. Constitutional reform should not be rushed and theTories said Glyn were the best placed to consider this matter as they may have been slow but had always been sure.[12] This position was reinforced by the letter of support which Glyn received from the Conservative leaderArthur Balfour. In it, Balfour wrote that the present government desired a revolution, not he said against the House of Lords, but against the British people. In his letter Balfour contended that there were many evils associated with the reform of the Lords, including the postponement of the very social reforms which the Liberal government wished to implement. It is not in an atmosphere of revolutionary controversy, he wrote, that healthy legislation on such subjects can be secured.[13]
Asquith's letter of support to Lyell was less colourful simply referring to the great constitutional struggle which the country and the party was engaged in and anticipating another clear Liberal win in the constituency.
Lyell held the seat for the Liberals with a majority of 2,327 votes over Glyn. This compared with an almost identical majority of 2,334 at the previous general election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Charles Henry Lyell | 8,694 | 57.7 | +1.3 | |
| Liberal Unionist | Ralph Glyn | 6,367 | 42.3 | −1.3 | |
| Majority | 2,327 | 15.4 | +2.6 | ||
| Turnout | 15,061 | 73.7 | −15.1 | ||
| Liberalhold | Swing | +1.3 | |||
While turnout was down between the general election and by-election, the share of the poll each party received was broadly the same. It seems issues the electorate felt were important enough to vote for in January had not changed by April and neither did the Liberals suffer from voter impatience at being asked to turn out for what may have seemed like an unnecessary election, as sometimes happens when sitting MPs stand down close to general elections.
The Liberal held the seat at the following General Election.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | Charles Henry Lyell | 9,576 | 54.5 | −1.9 | |
| Conservative | Charles Murray | 7,986 | 45.5 | −1.9 | |
| Majority | 1,590 | 9.0 | −3.8 | ||
| Turnout | 17,562 | 84.2 | −4.6 | ||
| Liberalhold | Swing | -1.9 | |||
Glyn was elected MP forClackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire in 1918.
