Blackpool (UK Parliament constituency)

Blackpool
Former Borough constituency for the House of Commons
1885–1945
Number of members	one
Replaced by	Blackpool North and Blackpool South
Created from	North Lancashire

Blackpool was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Blackpool in Lancashire. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

The constituency was created for the 1885 general election, and abolished for the 1945 general election, when it was replaced by the new Blackpool North and Blackpool South constituencies.

Boundaries

1885-1918: The Municipal Borough of Preston, the Sessional Divisions of Amounderness and Kirkham, and part of the Sessional Division of Leyland.

1918-1945: The County Borough of Blackpool, the Urban Districts of Bispham with Norbreck, Lytham, and St Anne's-on-the-Sea, and part of the civil parish of Carleton.

Members of Parliament

Year		Member	Party
	1885	Frederick Stanley	Conservative
	1886	Sir Matthew Ridley	Conservative
	1900	Henry Worsley-Taylor	Conservative
	1906	Wilfrid Ashley	Conservative
	1918	Albert Lindsay Parkinson	Unionist
	1922	Leonard Molloy	Unionist
	1923	Hugh Meyler	Liberal
	1924	Sir Walter de Frece	Unionist
	1931	Clifford Erskine-Bolst	Conservative
	1935	Roland Robinson	Conservative
1945		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1880s

Stanley

General Election 1885: Blackpool ^[1][2][3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Frederick Arthur Stanley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative win (new seat)

General Election 1886: Blackpool ^[1][2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Frederick Arthur Stanley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Ridley

Blackpool by-election, 1886^[1][4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Matthew White Ridley	6,263	71.4	n/a
	Liberal	John Ormerod Pilkington	2,513	28.6	n/a
Majority			3,750	42.8	n/a
Turnout				73.7	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1890s

General Election 1892: Blackpool ^[1][2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Sir Matthew White Ridley	6,536
	Liberal	Thomas Walker	3,487
Majority			3,049
Turnout				76.4
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election 1895: Blackpool ^[1][2][5]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Sir Matthew White Ridley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Elections in the 1900s

General Election 1900: Blackpool ^[1][2][6]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Rt Hon. Sir Matthew White Ridley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

Blackpool by-election, 1900^[1][4]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Henry Wilson Worsley-Taylor	7,059
	Liberal	Joseph Heap	5,589
Majority			1,470
Turnout				78.2
	Conservative hold		Swing

Phillipps

General Election 1906: Blackpool ^[1][2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Wilfrid William Ashley	10,139
	Liberal	Henry Vivian Phillipps	7,078
Majority			3,061
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

Ashley

General Election January 1910: Blackpool ^[1][7]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Wilfrid William Ashley	11,567
	Liberal	Samuel Hodgkinson	7,943
Majority			3,624
Turnout				87.3
	Conservative hold		Swing

General Election December 1910: Blackpool ^[1][8]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Wilfrid William Ashley	unopposed	n/a	n/a
	Conservative hold		Swing	n/a

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: Wilfrid William Ashley
• Liberal:

General Election 1918: Blackpool^[9]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Albert Lindsay Parkinson	15,818
	Independent	Clive F Critchley	9,862
	Labour	Allan Gee	2,608
Majority
Turnout				68.0
	Unionist hold		Swing

• endorsed by the Coalition Government

Elections in the 1920s

Hugh Meyler

General Election 1922: Blackpool

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Leonard Greenham Star Molloy	18,206
	Liberal	Hugh Mowbray Meyler	18,040
Majority
Turnout
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1923: Blackpool ^[10]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal	Hugh Mowbray Meyler	22,264	53.7	+3.9
	Unionist	Hon. Victor Albert Stanley	19,192	46.3	-3.9
Majority			3,072	7.4	7.8
Turnout				84.8	+6.5
	Liberal gain from Unionist		Swing	+3.9

General Election 1924: Blackpool

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir Abraham Walter de Frece	25,839	58.0
	Liberal	Hugh Mowbray Meyler	18,712	42.0
Majority			7,127	16.0
Turnout				85.8
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing

General Election 1929: Blackpool

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Sir Abraham Walter de Frece	32,912	46.8	-11.2
	Liberal	Miles Mitchell	25,374	36.1	-5.9
	Labour	Ernest Alfred Machin	12,049	17.1	n/a
Majority			7,538	10.7	-5.3
Turnout				81.1	-4.7
	Unionist hold		Swing	-2.7

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1931: Blackpool

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	Clifford Charles Alan Lawrence Erskine-Bolst	53,010	73.1
	Liberal	Edgar Wallace	19,524	26.9
Majority				46.2
Turnout
	Conservative hold		Swing

• Wallace was opposed to the National Government

urchase

General Election 1935: Blackpool

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Conservative	John Roland Robinson	48,514	65.24
	Labour	Harvey Thorneycroft	13,598	18.29
	Liberal	Henry George Purchase	12,245	16.47
Majority			34,916	46.96
Turnout				73.97
	Conservative hold		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;

• Conservative: Roland Robinson
• Liberal: Adrian Liddell Hart
• Labour: Harvey Thorneycroft

References

1. British Parliamentary Election Results 1885-1918, FWS Craig
2. The Liberal Year Book, 1907
3. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1886
4. The Constitiutional Year Book, 1904, published by Conservative Central Office, page 146 (170 in web page), Lancashire North
5. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
6. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1901
7. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
8. Debrett's House of Commons & Judicial Bench, 1916
9. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, FWS Craig
10. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-49, FWS Craig

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 3)

Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.