The 1907 Halifax by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire on 6 March 1907.
Vacancy
editUnder the provisions of the Succession to the Crown Act 1707 and a number of subsequent Acts, MPs appointed to certain ministerial and legal offices were at this time required to seek re-election.[1] The by-election in Halifax was caused by the appointment of the sitting Liberal MP, John Henry Whitley as a Junior Lord of the Treasury, the formal title given to the government’s junior whips in Parliament.[2]
Candidates
editWhitley, who had held the seat since 1900 fought the seat again in the Liberal interest. Halifax was a constituency at that time returning two members and there was recent history of both Liberal Unionist and Labour Party MPs being elected there. However the Unionist members met on 2 March to consider whether or not to run a candidate and decided to do so only if Labour contested the election. Later that day Labour announced they would not oppose Whitley [3] and there being no other nominations, Whitley was therefore returned unopposed on 6 March 1907.[4]
The result
edit| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal | John Henry Whitley | Unopposed | N/A | N/A | |
| Liberal hold | |||||