1928 St Ives by-election

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The 1928 St Ives by-election was held on 6 March 1928 in Cornwall. It happened after the sitting Unionist MP, Anthony Hawke, resigned to become a High Court judge. Hawke had won the seat in 1922, lost to a Liberal in 1923, and won it back in 1924.

Three candidates stood: Liberal Hilda Runciman, Unionist Caird, and Labour Hopkins. Although there were three candidates, it was mainly a two‑horse contest between Liberal and Unionist. Hilda Runciman was chosen to run for the Liberals because she was the wife of Liberal MP Walter Runciman and could “hold the seat” for him at the next general election. Liberal leader David Lloyd George did not approve of her candidacy; his Yellow Book positions were opposed by the Liberal Council, and Runciman refused to have Lloyd George speak for her, though Deputy Leader Sir Herbert Samuel did speak on her behalf. The arrangement drew some Tory criticism and became a campaign issue.

In the end, Hilda Runciman won the seat, defeating the Unionist candidate Caird by 763 votes. She received 10,241 votes (42.6%), Caird 9,478 (39.4%), and Labour Hopkins 4,343 (18.0%). This overturned Hawke’s previous majority of 1,247 and made Runciman one of the few Liberal women MPs at the time. She also became the first married couple to sit together in the House of Commons, as she joined her husband Walter Runciman there.

Runciman stood down in favor of her husband at the 1929 general election, and he held the seat for the Liberals, again defeating Caird. Hopkins later moved to contest Penryn & Falmouth in 1929 and finished third. The 1928 by-election is remembered as one of two notable “warming pan” by-elections of the 1924–1929 Parliament, the other being Bishop Auckland in 1929.