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"A Great Third Party"
Many have claimed that the first truly fascist MP in Britain was Henry Beamish, he was a staunch anti-Semite and was elected into the House of Commons in the 1918 by-election for Clapham as an Independent. Many have argued that he only managed to defeat the Conservative candidate due to the pro-Negotiation Independent candidate Edward Backhouse...

In the run-up to the election many of Backhouse's meetings were disrupted by people whom disagreed with negotiation with the Germans, through this Backhouse didn't get many of his policies across thus leading to the extremely anti-German Beamish taking advantage of the situation...

Another MP, representing Finsbury East who's claimed to be fascist is H. S. Spencer. An Independent MP who was supported by the far-right Vigilante Society that wanted a British Empire "for the British". He was against a Liberal candidate and won, he also had the support of the Merchant Seamen's League which added to his vote...

These two MP's were at first not members of any specifically fascist parties, however they worked together very closely and used both of their resources to help the other get re-elected. For example Henry Beamish joined the Vigilante Society. In the future though they both joined the British Fascist Party, the largest (and loosely run) fascist party...

History of British Fascism 1918-39; T. Linehan

One of the most interesting results of the 1918 General Election was how well the Independents and minor parties fared. The biggest example of this is the National Party which was led primarily by Sir Henry Croft, however Sir Richard Cooper and Lord Ampthill also helped to create the party...

In the 1918 General Election the party fielded 26 candidates and from these did very well, 12 of the candidates won in previously-Conservative seats. Alongside this they managed to split the votes in 4 constituencies and this allowed an Independent, two Labour and one Liberal MP's into the Commons...

Another victory for a minor party was with Christabel Pankhurst whom stood for the Women's Party in Smethwick, she managed to defeat a sole opponent (from Labour) by a small majority of around 770 votes...

Lastly four Independent candidates were elected in 1918. Two had very close ideologies and would later join the British Fascist Party... Another Independent elected was Horatio Bottomley in Hackney South, he defeated the Coalition Liberal candidate by a majority of around 8000 votes. He had been an MP for the same constituency until 1912 when he was thrown out for bankruptcy...

The Growth of Minor Parties in the Early 20th Century; J. Hazlett

In the by-elections after the 1918 General Election the pattern of minor-party growth was ongoing. The Anti-Waste League was set up by Lord Rothermere (the newspaper tycoon), he set it up in response to large-scale government spending that they believe was wasteful... The 'AWL' managed to snatch up 4 seats through by-elections after 1918 and it managed to keep a hold of these seats even after the General Election of 1922...

Another party was the 'People's League', set up by Independent Horatio Bottomley. While most of its candidates failed to gain a seat it supported Murray Sueter who became an MP for the Anti-Waste League in Hertford, it also support John Nicholson who failed to win against the Anti-Waste League candidate Reginald Applin in Westminster Abbey...

Oddly however the National party only stood a single candidate in all the by-elections, this was in Cambridge. The candidate that stood for them was George Makgill, he was an extremely patriotic man that was also secretary for the 'British Empire Union', a group that was heavily patriotic and very anti-German...


How By-Elections Effected Early 20th Century Politics; H. Lawd

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