St Helens (UK Parliament constituency)

St Helens
Former County constituency for the House of Commons
County	Lancashire
Major settlements	St Helens
1885–1983
Number of members	One
Replaced by	St Helens North and St Helens South
Created from	South West Lancashire

St Helens was a county constituency in the county of Lancashire, England. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Created by the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885, the constituency was abolished in 1983, being split into North and South divisions.

Boundaries

The constituency was based on the boundaries of St Helens County Borough.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1885	Henry Seton-Karr	Conservative
	1906	Thomas Glover	Labour
	1910	Rigby Swift	Conservative
	1918	James Sexton	Labour
	1931	Richard Austin Spencer	Conservative
	1935	William Albert Robinson	Labour
	1945	Hartley Shawcross	Labour
	1958 by-election	Leslie Spriggs	Labour
1983		constituency abolished

Elections

Elections in the 1880s

Seton-Karr

General Election 1885: St Helens ^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Seton-Karr	3,750	50.4	n/a
	Liberal	David Gamble	3,693	49.6	n/a
Majority			57	0.8	n/a
Turnout				89.8	n/a
	Conservative win (new seat)

General Election 1886: St Helens ^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Seton-Karr	3,621	51.5	+1.1
	Liberal	A. Sinclair	3,404	48.5	-1.1
Majority			217	3.0	+2.2
Turnout				84.7
	Conservative hold		Swing	+1.1

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: St Helens ^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Seton-Karr	4,258	50.3	-1.2
	Liberal	William Rann Kennedy	4,199	49.7	+1.2
Majority			59	0.6	-2.4
Turnout				90.3	+5.6
	Conservative hold		Swing	-1.2

General Election 1895: St Helens ^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Seton-Karr	4,700	53.5	+3.2
	Liberal	John Forster	4,091	46.5	-3.2
Majority			609	7.0	+6.4
Turnout				88.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	+3.2

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: St Helens ^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Henry Seton-Karr	5,300	60.9
	Liberal	Charles Augustus Vansittart Conybeare	3,402	39.1
Majority			1,898	21.8
Turnout				80.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1906: St Helens ^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Thomas Glover	6,058	56.6	n/a
	Conservative	Sir Henry Seton-Karr	4,647	43.4	-17.5
Majority			1,411	13.2	35.0
Turnout				87.9	+7.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1910s

General Election January 1910: St Helens ^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Thomas Glover	6,512	53.3
	Conservative	Rigby Philip Watson Swift	5,717	46.7
Majority			795	6.6
Turnout				93.6
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election December 1910: St Helens ^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rigby Philip Watson Swift	6,016	51.1	+4.4
	Labour	Thomas Glover	5,752	48.9	-4.4
Majority			264	2.2	8.8
Turnout				90.1	-3.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+4.4

General Election 1914/15: Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1915. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the July 1914, the following candidates had been selected;

Unionist: Rigby Philip Watson Swift
Labour: James Sexton

St Helens by-election, 1915^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Rigby Philip Watson Swift	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Unionist hold		Swing	n/a

General Election 1918: St Helens^[10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	James Sexton	15,583	57.1
	Unionist	Rigby Philip Watson Swift	11,689	42.9
Majority			3,894	14.2
Turnout				61.5
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

endorsed by Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: St Helens^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	James Sexton	20,731	58.7	+1.6
	Unionist	Edward Wooll	14,587	41.3	-1.6
Majority				17.4	+3.2
Turnout				80.0	+18.5
	Labour hold		Swing	+1.6

General Election 1923: St Helens^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	James Sexton	20,086	55.5	-3.2
	Unionist	Margaret Evelyn Pilkington	16,109	44.5	+3.2
Majority			3,977	11.0	-6.4
Turnout				80.5	+0.5
	Labour hold		Swing	-3.2

General Election 1924: St Helens^[13]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	James Sexton	21,313	55.8
	Unionist	Margaret Evelyn Pilkington	16,908	44.2
Majority			4,405	11.6
Turnout				83.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1929: St Helens^[14]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	James Sexton	27,665	58.6	+2.8
	Unionist	Richard Austin Spencer	19,560	41.4	-2.8
Majority				17.2	+5.6
Turnout				78.3	-4.8
	Labour hold		Swing	+2.8

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Richard Austin Spencer	26,131	52.4
	Labour	Sir James Sexton	23,701	47.6
Majority			2,430	4.9
Turnout				78.9

General Election 1935: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Albert Robinson	29,044	53.7
	Conservative	Richard Austin Spencer	25,063	46.3
Majority			3,981	7.4
Turnout				82.6

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;

Labour: William Albert Robinson^[15]
Conservative: S J Hill

Election in the 1940s

General Election 1945: St Helens^[16]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Hartley William Shawcross	34,675	66.2	+12.5
	Conservative	Frank Whitworth	17,686	33.8	-12.5
Majority			16,989	32.4	+25.0
Turnout			52,361	76.7	-5.9
	Labour hold		Swing	+12.5

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1950: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Rt Hon. Sir Hartley William Shawcross	39,514	63.2
	Conservative	Alfred George Fletcher Hall-Davis	20,741	33.18
	Liberal	Joseph H Winskill	2,263	3.6
Majority			18,773	30.0
Turnout				84.9

General Election 1951: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Rt Hon. Sir Hartley William Shawcross	37,688	63.3
	Conservative	Michael Henry Colin Hughes-Young	21,830	36.7
Majority			15,858	26.6
Turnout				79.7

General Election 1955: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Rt Hon. Sir Hartley William Shawcross	35,737	64.3
	Conservative	A. Maxwell Caplin	19,854	35.7
Majority			15,883	28.6
Turnout				73.5
	Labour hold		Swing

St Helens by-election, 1958
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	26,405	64.7
	Conservative	Mark Carlisle	14,411	35.3
Majority			11,994	29.4
Turnout			40,816
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1959: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	35,961	62.1
	Conservative	Mark Carlisle	21,956	37.9
Majority			14,005	24.2
Turnout				76.9
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General Election 1964: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	34,137	67.0
	Conservative	Herbert Keith Speed	16,826	33.0
Majority			17,311	34.0
Turnout				72.3
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	33,325	70.8	+3.8
	Conservative	Christopher C. Fielden	13,776	29.2	−3.8
Majority			19,549	41.5
Turnout				68.6
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	31,587	65.7
	Conservative	Ian D. McGaw	16,509	34.3
Majority			15,078	31.4
Turnout				64.5
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election February 1974: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	32,621	59.0
	Liberal	AE Lycett	10,905	19.7
	Conservative	KJ Bridgeman	10,752	19.5
	Ind. Labour Party	M Pike	991	1.8
Majority			21,716	39.3
Turnout				73.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election October 1974: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	32,620	64.1	+5.1
	Conservative	K.J. Bridgeman	10,554	20.8	+1.3
	Liberal	A.E. Lycett	7,689	15.1	−4.6
Majority			22,066	43.4
Turnout				66.9
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1979: St Helens
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Leslie Spriggs	32,489	59.6	−4.5
	Conservative	J. Brown	16,934	31.1	+10.3
	Liberal	I. Smith	4,587	8.4	−6.7
	Workers Revolutionary	J. Boylan	471	0.9
Majority			15,555	28.6
Turnout				72.8	+5.9
	Labour hold		Swing

Sources

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 1)

References

↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British parliamentary election results, 1885-1918 (Craig)
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
↑ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.