Westminster Abbey (UK Parliament constituency)

Westminster Abbey was a constituency in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons by the first past the post system of election.

Westminster Abbey
Former borough constituency
for the House of Commons
19181950
SeatsOne
Created fromStrand and Westminster
Replaced byCities of London and Westminster

It was created for the 1918 general election, and included all of the former Westminster constituency, as reduced in area in 1885, apart from its Knightsbridge exclave, plus all of the former Strand constituency. It continued to exist until the 1950 general election, when it was merged with the two-seat City of London constituency to form a single-member seat named Cities of London and Westminster.

The seat was sometimes known as the Abbey Division of Westminster or simply Abbey. It was held by the Conservative Party for its entire existence.

Boundaries

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Westminster Abbey in the Parliamentary County of London, 1918-50
 
A map showing the wards of Westminster Metropolitan Borough as they appeared in 1916.

The City of Westminster is a district of Inner London. Its southern boundary is on the north bank of the River Thames. In 1918 it was to the west of the City of London, to the south of Holborn and St. Pancras and to the east of Kensington and Chelsea. It consisted of the eastern part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster, comprising the then wards of Covent Garden, Great Marlborough, Pall Mall, Regent, St. Anne, St. John, St. Margaret, Strand and part of Charing Cross.

History

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The constituency was created in 1918 from the former seats of Westminster & Strand. From 1918 to 1950, it returned five Conservative MPs, with Labour and the Liberals having little support in the area.

After William Burdett-Coutts, the first MP for the seat, died in 1921 there was a by-election where all three candidates claimed to be anti-waste. At the time the Anti-Waste League was active. It was formed to advance the political ambitions of the newspaper owner Lord Rothermere. The objects of the League were to insist upon measures being taken to restore the country to solvency, urge a wholesale reduction of expenditure, fight the battle of local rates and oppose sham Anti-Waste candidates. The Conservative candidate John Nicholson won the election, but the Anti-Waste League (whose candidate later became a Conservative MP) polled respectably and the Liberal candidate (a former MP) came third.

After Nicholson's death in 1924 a further by-election took place. The new Conservative candidate Otho Nicholson was challenged by the prominent politician Winston Churchill as a Constitutionalist, the formidable Labour stalwart and future MP Fenner Brockway, and a little-known Liberal. The Constitutionalist label was one used by a number of candidates, mostly ex-Liberals like Churchill, in the 1920s. The Constitutionalists did not function as a party and most of them ended up joining the Liberal or Conservative Parties. Nicholson beat Churchill with a very small majority of 43.

By the 1945 general election, the electorate of the area had dropped by almost half since the pre-war by-election. Labour almost equalled the 27% vote Brockway had received in 1924. The Independent Progressive candidate of 1939 reappeared as a Communist candidate and received 17.6% of the vote. The Conservatives still had an absolute majority of the vote. For the 1950 general election, the seat became the central part of the new constituency of Cities of London and Westminster.

Members of Parliament

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Election Member Party
1918 William Burdett-Coutts Conservative
1921 by-election John Nicholson Conservative
1924 by-election Otho Nicholson Conservative
1932 by-election Sir Sidney Herbert Conservative
1939 by-election Harold Webbe Conservative

Elections

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1910s

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General election 1918: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
C Unionist William Burdett-Coutts Unopposed
Unionist win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

1920s

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By-election, 25 August 1921
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist John Nicholson[1] 6,204 43.6 N/A
Anti-Waste League Reginald Applin[1] 5,874 34.9 New
Liberal Arnold Lupton[1] 3,053 21.5 New
Majority 1,234 8.7 N/A
Turnout 36,952 38.5 N/A
Unionist hold Swing N/A
 
S. Drury-Lowe
General election 1922: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist John Nicholson 13,620 75.6 N/A
Labour Joseph George Butler 2,454 13.6 New
Independent Sidney Robert Drury-Lowe 1,950 10.8 New
Majority 11,166 62.0 N/A
Turnout 36,763 49.0 N/A
Unionist hold Swing N/A
General election 1923: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist John Nicholson Unopposed N/A N/A
Unionist hold Swing N/A
By-election, 19 March 1924
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Otho Nicholson 8,187 35.9 N/A
Constitutionalist Winston Churchill 8,144 35.8 New
Labour Fenner Brockway 6,156 27.0 New
Liberal James Scott Duckers 291 1.3 New
Majority 43 0.1 N/A
Turnout 36,999 61.6 N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A
General election 1924: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Otho Nicholson 17,915 80.6 N/A
Labour Arthur Woolf 4,308 19.4 N/A
Majority 13,607 61.2 N/A
Turnout 38,069 58.4 N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A
General election 1929: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist Otho Nicholson 18,195 74.0 −6.6
Labour James H MacDonnell 6,406 26.0 +6.6
Majority 11,789 48.0 −13.2
Turnout 48,524 50.7 −7.7
Unionist hold Swing -6.6

1930s

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General election 1931: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Otho Nicholson Unopposed N/A N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A
1932 Westminster Abbey by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Sidney Herbert Unopposed N/A N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A
General election 1935: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Sidney Herbert 18,117 77.5 N/A
Labour William Smith Kennedy 5,255 22.5 New
Majority 12,862 55.0 N/A
Turnout 47,538 49.2 N/A
Conservative hold Swing N/A
1939 Westminster Abbey by-election
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Harold Webbe 9,678 67.4 −10.1
Independent Progressive G. Billy Carritt 4,674 32.6 New
Majority 5,004 34.8 −20.2
Turnout 47,396 30.3 −18.9
Conservative hold Swing N/A

1940s

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General election 1945: Westminster Abbey
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Harold Webbe 9,160 54.4 −23.1
Labour Jeremy Hutchinson 4,408 26.1 +3.6
Communist G. Billy Carritt 2,964 17.6 New
Democratic Norman Leith-Hay-Clark 326 1.9 New
Majority 4,752 28.3 −26.7
Turnout 28,823 58.5 +9.3
Conservative hold Swing N/A

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c All three candidates claimed to be anti waste: Nicholson stood as "Constitutional and Independent Conservative Anti-Waste", while Lupton stood as "Independent Liberal and Anti-Waste".Morgan, Kenneth O (1986). Consensus and Disunity: The Lloyd George Coalition Government 1918-1922. Oxford University Press. p. 245. ISBN 9780198229759.

References

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  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "A" (part 1)
  • Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972, compiled and edited by F. W. S. Craig (Political Reference Publications 1972)
  • Who's Who of British Members of Parliament: Volume III 1919-1945, edited by M. Stenton and S. Lees (The Harvester Press 1976)
  • British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1979)
  • Minor Parties at British Parliamentary Elections 1885-1974, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1975)