Burslem (UK Parliament constituency)

Burslem was a borough constituency in Stoke-on-Trent which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Elections were held using the first past the post voting system.

Boundaries

The County Borough of Stoke-on-Trent wards numbers one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.

The constituency was created for the 1918 general election, and abolished for the 1950 general election. From 1885 to 1918 the Stoke-on-Trent area had been divided into two constituencies: Stoke and Hanley. In 1918, the area was divided into three constituencies: Stoke, Hanley and a new seat called Burslem. Burslem was thus made up from part of the former Stoke seat and part of Hanley.

History

Until 1918, both Stoke and Hanley had been represented by Liberal MPs. The Liberal Party in the area was heavily influenced by support for radical land reform policies such as Site Value Rating and the Single Tax policy. These policies were advocated by R.L. Outhwaite, the MP for Hanley and Josiah Wedgwood, the MP for neighbouring Newcastle-under-Lyme. After 1918, they both left the Liberal Party and joined the Labour Party. There they influenced Andrew MacLaren. who was for many years the standard-bearer for the Labour Party and an advocate of Site Value Rating. At the 1931 general election, the supporters of land reform were split when MacLaren was opposed by a candidate who advocated a Single Tax policy. He returned to Parliament in 1935, but left the Labour Party in 1943 and sought re-election as an Independent.

When Outhwaite and Wedgwood left the Liberal Party in 1919, those who remained made the Liberal Party less radical. For the next 20 years the Liberal Party and the Unionist Party experimented with different approaches to electoral politics, often coming together to support the same candidate, as in 1922, 1924, 1931 and 1935.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1918	Samuel Finney	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1922	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1923	William Edward Robinson	Liberal
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1924	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1931	William Allen	Liberal National
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1935	Andrew MacLaren	Labour
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Party color" |	1945	Albert Davies	Labour
	1950	constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

Template:Election box winning candidate with party linkTemplate:Election box candidate with party link coalition 1918Template:Election box end 1918

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1918: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Walter Essex	3,108	18.4
Majority			1,173	7.0
Turnout			16,883	56.5
Registered electors			29,866
	win (new seat)

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1922: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Sydney Malkin	11,667	49.6
Majority			205	0.8
Turnout			23,539	78.2
Registered electors			30,119
	hold		Swing	N/A

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1923: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Andrew MacLaren	12,480	49.9
Majority			63	0.2
Turnout			25,023	82.4
Registered electors			30,372
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+0.5

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1924: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		William Allen	13,755	48.9
Majority			606	2.2
Turnout			28,116	88.1
Registered electors			31,903
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	N/A

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1929: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Alfred P. Harrison	7,440	21.6
		James Joy	6,815	19.8
Majority			12,788	37.0
Turnout			34,483	82.5
Registered electors			41,782
	hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1930s

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General election 1931: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Andrew MacLaren	16,248	46.0
	Commonwealth Land	Arthur Rowland-Entwhistle	401	1.1
Majority			2,399	6.8
Turnout			35,296	82.5
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1935: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		William Allen	15,227	45.8
Majority			2,803	8.4
Turnout			33,257	77.9
	gain from Template:Yesno		Swing	+7.7

Elections in the 1940s

General Election 1939–40

Another general election was scheduled to take place before the end of 1940. In 1939 the parties were preparing for an election, and by the end of that year, the following candidates had been selected:

• Labour: Andrew MacLaren

Template:Election box winning candidate with party link

General election 1945: Burslem

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
		Frederic Bennett	9,877	29.8
		Andrew MacLaren	3,223	9.7
Majority			10,167	30.7
Turnout			33,144	78.7
Registered electors			42,121
	hold		Swing	+11.1