1945 Leeds City Council election

The 1945 Leeds municipal elections were held on Thursday 1 November 1945.^[1] Although a third of the council would ordinarily be up for election, the suspension of elections during World War II meant the council had last held elections in 1938, and with the amount of vacancies and co-options throughout near to two-thirds of the council needed electing.^[2]

Labour repeated their earlier national performance and won sweeping victories across the country,^[1] with Leeds no exception, picking up 40 of the 48 seats contested (with Richmond Hill going unopposed) and stealing control of the council from the Conservatives.^[2]^[3] The Conservatives only managed eight defences, which were confined to their bastions of Far Headingley, Hyde Park, North and Roundhay, although running Labour exceptionally close in Blenheim.^[2] The minor parties also failed to escape the Labour tide, as the Liberals lost both their representatives (a councillor and an alderman) and the Communists their sole councillor in Woodhouse - formally Labour, but expelled for alleged Communist sympathies.^[2]^[3]^[4]

As well as the 21 gains Labour made that night, the gentlemen's agreement - signed between Labour and the Conservatives in 1930 to allocate aldermen in proportion to their councillors - further rewarded Labour with an extra five aldermen at mostly Tory expense (the other being the aforementioned Liberal) in recognition of those gains. As a result, Labour emerged with an overall majority of 42 on a turnout of 43.3%.^[3]

Election result

Leeds Local Election Result 1945
	Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes
Labour	40	21	0	+21	83.3	57.5	84,969
Conservative	8	0	19	-19	16.7	36.9	54,551
Liberal	0	0	1	-1	0.0	5.6	8,214

The result had the following consequences for the total number of seats on the council after the elections:^[3]

Party		Previous council		New council
Party		Cllr	Ald	Cllr	Ald
	Labour	37	10	58	15
	Conservatives	39	15	20	11
	Liberals	1	1	0	0
	Communists	1	0	0	0
Total		78	26	78	26
Total		104		104
Working majority		-4	-6	38	4
Working majority		-10		42

Ward results

Armley & Wortley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Joseph Wilkinson	3,477	80.9
	Labour	Joseph Bissell	3,473
	Labour	Annie Marlow	3,464
	Conservative	Joseph Hiley	823	19.1
Majority			2,641	61.7
Turnout			4,300

Beeston^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Wilfred Webster	4,083	51.3
	Conservative	Joseph Moorhouse	2,995	37.7
	Liberal	Ms Rowena Richardson	874	11.0
Majority			1,088	13.7
Turnout			7,952

Blenheim^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Albert Smith	2,206	50.5
	Conservative	Sydney Webster	2,163	49.5
Majority			43	1.0
Turnout			4,369

Bramley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ernest Kavanagh	4,960	55.6
	Conservative	James Reginald Herbert Greaves	2,913	32.6
	Liberal	Fred Plews	1,052	11.8
Majority			2,047	23.0
Turnout			8,925

Burmantofts^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Jackson	2,440	80.0
	Labour	Thomas McKellar	2,408
	Conservative	John Claude Bidgood	610	20.0
	Conservative	George Hedley Monkman	585
Majority			1,798	60.0
Turnout			3,050

Central^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Spence	2,194	69.1
	Conservative	Philip Kay Stead	983	30.9
Majority			1,211	38.2
Turnout			3,177

Cross Gates & Temple Newsam^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Lunn	5,701	57.5
	Labour	Richard Thomas	5,485
	Conservative	Herbert Adamson	4,207	42.5
	Conservative	Morris Tomlinson	3,907
Majority			1,278	15.0
Turnout			9,908

East Hunslet^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Frederic Naylor	2,807	68.0
	Labour	Robert Peart	2,608
	Liberal	Alfred Kennedy	1,318	32.0
	Liberal	Albert Hope	1,169
Majority			1,290	36.0
Turnout			4,125

Far Headingley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Ernest Osborne	5,607	66.8
	Conservative	John William Richardson Hargrave	5,540
	Labour	David Beevers	2,791	33.2
	Labour	Ms. Irene Morley Clayden	2,730
Majority			2,749	33.6
Turnout			8,398

Farnley & Wortley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Leonard Wood Wilkinson	4,802	65.5
	Labour	Charles Victor Woods	4,636
	Conservative	John Francis Power	2,533	34.5
	Conservative	Frank Carter	2,397
Majority			2,103	31.0
Turnout			7,335

Harehills^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ms. Alice Jolley	4,700	60.7
	Labour	Kenneth Arthur Muir	4,374
	Conservative	James Walker Booth	2,199	28.4
	Conservative	George Astle	2,142
	Liberal	Thomas Edmund Hodgson	839	10.8
	Liberal	Arthur Gerald Shackleton	675
Majority			2,175	32.3
Turnout			7,738

Holbeck North^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Cornelius Fitzgerald	1,152	76.5
	Labour	James William Veitch	1,138
	Liberal	Walter Holdsworth	354	23.5
	Liberal	Gilbert Whittaker Storey	331
Majority			784	53.0
Turnout			1,506

Holbeck South^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Joseph Thomas Dickinson	3,010	69.3
	Labour	William Maldwyn Jones	2,934
	Conservative	Harold Stanley Jowett	767	17.7
	Liberal	Wilfred Ernest Hopper	568	13.1
	Liberal	Bertie Morris Turner	489
Majority			2,167	51.6
Turnout			4,345

Hunslet Carr & Middleton^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Charles Jenkinson	6,652	80.1
	Labour	James Edward Hodkinson	6,424
	Conservative	Andrew William Colin Cumming	1,657	19.9
Majority			4,767	60.1
Turnout			8,309

Hyde Park^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Percy Horner Hutchinson	3,497	57.2
	Conservative	Frederic Walker	3,397
	Labour	Ms. Annie Margaret Maud Happold	2,620	42.8
	Labour	Herbert Kemp	2,424
Majority			777	14.3
Turnout			6,117	47.6

Kirkstall^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Marshall Clegg	4,978	58.5
	Labour	George Clifford Bell	4,885
	Conservative	Archibold Caton Scarr	2,701	31.7
	Conservative	Charles Lockwood Turnbull	2,569
	Liberal	Arthur Lawrence Braithwaite Childe	834	9.8
	Liberal	Frederic Melville Fisher	718
Majority			2,184	26.7
Turnout			8,513

Mill Hill & South^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ms. Gertrude Bray	1,387	57.0
	Labour	Harry Holdsworth	1,380
	Conservative	Herbert Preston Peacock	1,048	43.0
	Conservative	Alfred Edward Weaver	1,032
Majority			332	13.9
Turnout			2,435

North^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Edward John Loy Wooler	5,213	57.5
	Conservative	Ms. Dorothy Murphy	4,967
	Labour	Ms. Lillian Hammond	2,605	28.7
	Labour	Norman Davy	2,477
	Liberal	Winifred Francis Underhill	1,247	13.8
	Liberal	Albert Edward Marshall	1,238
Majority			2,362	28.8
Turnout			9,065

Osmondthorpe^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ms. May Firth	3,817	76.0
	Labour	Fred Potter	3,781
	Conservative	Albert Edward Baker	1,204	24.0
	Conservative	Herbert Reginald Stott	1,143
Majority			2,577	52.0
Turnout			5,021

Potternewton^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Charles Benjamin Bradley	3,381	56.6
	Labour	Karl Cyril Cohen	3,197
	Labour	Barnet Weinrib	3,121
	Conservative	James Thomas Mulley	2,595	43.4
	Conservative	Charles Henry Driver	2,587
	Conservative	Eldon Jenkins Fenton	2,518
Majority			526	13.2
Turnout			5,976

Richmond Hill^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Willie Fowler	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

Roundhay^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Francis Eric Tetley	5,661	62.1
	Conservative	Alexander Ayrton Watt	5,257
	Labour	Ms. Ivy Veitch	3,462	37.9
	Labour	William Merritt	3,434
Majority			1,795	24.1
Turnout			9,123

Upper Armley^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ernest Blackburn	3,738	59.0
	Labour	John Herbert Underwood	3,729
	Labour	William Bramham	3,719
	Conservative	Ms. Jenny Wormald	2,598	41.0
	Conservative	Edward Dean Glover	2,528
	Conservative	Matthew Farey	2,421
Majority			1,121	18.0
Turnout			6,336

West Hunslet^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Harold Watson	3,725	71.0
	Conservative	Percival Arthur Woodward	960	18.3
	Liberal	George Petch	560	10.7
Majority			2,765	52.7
Turnout			5,245

Westfield^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	William Villiers Stoner	1,551	74.1
	Labour	Ms. Edith Youngman	1,528
	Conservative	Ms. Mabel Burton	541	25.9
	Conservative	Stanley Hodgson Doyle	527
Majority			987	48.3
Turnout			2,092

Woodhouse^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Ms. Mary Pearce	2,730	62.4
	Conservative	George Sydney Taylor	1,076	24.6
	Liberal	Ernest Lightowler	568	13.0
Majority			1,654	37.8
Turnout			4,374

References

^ ^a ^b "Labor Gains Widen in British Returns". The New York Times. 3 November 1945. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad "Municipal results: Leeds". The Yorkshire Post. 2 November 1945.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Sharpe, L.J. (1967). Voting in cities: the 1964 borough elections.
^ Johnson, C. (1946). The End of Socialism: The Reflections of a Radical.

[NYT-1] "Labor Gains Widen in British Returns". The New York Times. 3 November 1945. Retrieved 17 October 2012.

[results-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o ^p ^q ^r ^s ^t ^u ^v ^w ^x ^y ^z ^aa ^ab ^ac ^ad "Municipal results: Leeds". The Yorkshire Post. 2 November 1945.

[sharpe-3] Sharpe, L.J. (1967). Voting in cities: the 1964 borough elections.

[4] Johnson, C. (1946). The End of Socialism: The Reflections of a Radical.

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