MAJORITY REDUCED

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26630, 28 November 1947, Page 5

MAJORITY REDUCED

Retention by Labour of Gravesend Electorate Rec. 9.30 p.m. LONDON, Nov. 27. The by-election held yesterday in the Gravesend constituency for the vacant seat in the House of Commons, resulted:— Sir Richard Acland (Labour) .. .. 24,692 Mr Frank Taylor (Conservative) .. 23,017 Majority .. 1,675 The vacancy was caused by Mr Garry Allighan’s (Labour) expulsion from the House of Commons on October 30 for dishonourable conduct. The percentage of the total electorate which voted was 77.7 At the last General Election the result was : Mr Allighan, 21,609; Sir I. Albery (Conservative), 14,553; Mr R. E. Goodfellow (Liberal) 5033.

Unusual interest was shown in the by-election, the result of which was generally considered to be a pointer to popular reaction to the Government. The deep interest of the Government was indicated by the fact that two Ministers, Mr Herbert Morrison and Mr John Strachey, were among those actively supporting the Labour candidates. In addition to Viscount Corvedale, the Labour member for Paisley (a son of Earl Baldwin, one of the pillars of the Conservative Party), and a daily bus load of Labour members of the Commons, Sir Richard Acland had also the support of Dame Sybil Thorndike, who vigorously campaigned from the platform on his behalf. After the result was announced, Sir Richard said: “I won because the average voter realised that although facing tough times, things would have been very much worse under a Tory Government.” Sir Richard Acland, who .is 41, was member for the Barnstaple Division in Devonshire from 1933 to 1945, a seat which he had previously contested in 1931. He also unsuccessfully contested the Torquay Division in 1929.