Kettering by-election, 1940

The Kettering by-election, 1940 was a parliamentary by-election held on 6 March 1940 for the British House of Commons constituency of Kettering in Northamptonshire.

Previous MP

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), John Eastwood, had resigned his seat when he was appointed as a Metropolitan Police magistrate.^[1] He had been Kettering's MP since the 1931 general election, when he had defeated the sitting Labour MP Samuel Perry.

Candidates

The Conservative candidate was John Profumo, an army officer and son of a prominent barrister of Italian origin.

During World War II, the parties in the Coalition Government had agreed not to contest vacancies in seats held by other coalition parties. However, William Ross, a local steel-worker and Labour Party councillor in Corby, wanted to contest the seat. He was disowned by his local Labour Party and by the party's National Executive Committee, and stood as a "Workers' and Pensioners' Anti-War" candidate.

Result

On a turnout barely half of that at the 1935 general election, Profumo held the seat comfortably, with 73% of the votes. After a successful career in the army (where he rose to the rank of Brigadier and was awarded an OBE), he was defeated at the 1945 general election. He returned to Parliament in 1950, and rose through the ranks to become Secretary of State for War in 1960, before his career was destroyed in 1963 by a political scandal which became known as the Profumo Affair.

Votes

See also

• Kettering constituency
• Kettering
• List of United Kingdom by-elections
• United Kingdom by-election records

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs