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Empire, Patriotism and the Working‐Class Electorate: The 1900 General Election in the Battersea Constituency
Author(s) -
SHARPE IAIN
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
parliamentary history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.14
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1750-0206
pISSN - 0264-2824
DOI - 10.1111/j.1750-0206.2009.00116.x
Subject(s) - victory , patriotism , opposition (politics) , general election , empire , spanish civil war , political science , political economy , adversary , law , economic history , politics , sociology , history , statistics , mathematics
The extent to which the Unionist victory in the ‘khaki’ general election of 1900 was the result of patriotic sentiment arising from the South African war has long been a source of controversy among historians. Battersea has been cited as an area that was largely unaffected by patriotic and imperial fervour during this period. This article examines the general election campaign in the Battersea constituency. The sitting MP, John Burns, was re‐elected despite his opposition to the war, but the Conservatives achieved their highest percentage vote of that at any parliamentary election between 1885 and 1918. While the war was not the only issue raised during the campaign, it was the most prominent and clearly benefited the imperialist and pro‐war Conservative candidate. In order to retain his seat Burns had to fight a far more dynamic local campaign than his opponent, and even then he won only narrowly. Although imperial sentiment was not quite enough to oust Burns from this otherwise safe seat, it was the main reason for the strong Conservative performance.