Stoke-on-Trent, Stoke (UK Parliament constituency)

Stoke was a borough constituency in Stoke-on-Trent which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, a new name and form of a seat which had existed from the Reform Act 1832. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.

Stoke
Former borough constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1950
Seats	One
Created from	Stoke-upon-Trent
Replaced by	Stoke-on-Trent Central, Stoke-on-Trent North and Stoke-on-Trent South

History

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	John Ward	Coalition Liberal
	1922		National Liberal
	1923		Liberal
	1923		Constitutionalist, then Liberal
	1929	Lady Mosley	Labour
	1931		New Party
	1931	Ida Copeland	Conservative
	1935	Ellis Smith	Labour
1950		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Ward

General election 1918: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Liberal	John Ward	Unopposed
	Liberal win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	John Ward	16,685	61.3	N/A
	Labour	John Watts	10,522	38.7	New
Majority			6,163	22.6	N/A
Turnout			27,207	68.0	N/A
	National Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1923: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal	John Ward	13,119	51.2	−10.1
	Labour	John Watts	12,502	48.8	+10.1
Majority			617	2.4	−20.2
Turnout			25,621	63.2	−4.8
	Liberal hold		Swing	-10.1

General election 1924: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Constitutionalist	John Ward	17,864	57.3	+6.1
	Labour	John Watts	13,318	42.7	−6.1
Majority			4,546	14.6	+12.2
Turnout			31,182	75.4	+12.2
	Constitutionalist hold		Swing	+6.1

General election 1929: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Cynthia Mosley	26,548	58.7	+16.0
	Liberal	John Ward	18,698	41.3	−16.0
Majority			7,850	17.4	32.0
Turnout			45,246	81.2	+5.8
	Labour gain from Liberal		Swing	+16.0

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ida Copeland	19,918	45.56
	Labour	Ellis Smith	13,264	30.34
	New Party	Oswald Mosley	10,534	24.10	New
Majority			6,654	15.22	N/A
Turnout			43,716	75.88
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ellis Smith	20,992	52.67
	Conservative	Ida Copeland	18,867	47.33
Majority			2,125	5.34	N/A
Turnout			39,859	69.98
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

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 from 1939 and by the end of this year, the following candidates had been selected;

• Labour: Ellis Smith

General election 1945: Stoke-on-Trent

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Ellis Smith	29,551	69.12
	Conservative	W.P. Wentworth Shields	13,203	30.88
Majority			16,348	38.24
Turnout			42,754	75.68
	Labour hold		Swing

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "S" (part 5)