Leeds Parliamentary Election Results
1910 - 17th January
Central
R. Armitage (Liberal) 3,987
J. Gordon (Conservative) 3,366
East
J. O’Grady (Labour) 5,373
W. H. Clarke (Conservative) 2,308
North
R. H. Barran (Liberal) 10,775
J. D. Birchall (Conservative) 9,164
South
W. Middlebrook (Liberal) 8,969
W. Nicholson (Conservative) 4,366
West
T. E. Harvey (Liberal) 9,969
S. Samuel (Conservative) 6,654
The election was called over a constitutional crisis when the House of Lords rejected the People’s Budget but it produced a hung parliament. However, with the help of the Irish Parliamentary Party’s 71 seats, Asquith and the Liberals retained power winning 274 votes to the Conservatives 272. In Leeds the results were announced in Victoria Square on a huge magic lantern screen to the crowds gathered there. The Liberals held onto every seat in the city whilst both parties increased their votes on 1906; the Liberals by 4,481 and the Conservatives by 6,688. The Liberal majority in Leeds South was increased by 2,433 whilst O’Grady of the Labour Party in Leeds East increased his by 974.
The Leeds Mercury declared that ‘The Peers have proved so poor that there is none in Leeds to do them reverence.’ The Free trade issue was still prominent in Leeds with the Free Trade Union displaying black bread, sausages and horseflesh recently bought in Germany at ridiculously high prices whilst the Tariff Reformers showed bars of steel that could have been made in England.