Archibald Sinclair Keeps His Seat?

[Simon]

Archibald Sinclair was elected MP for Caithness and Sutherland in 1922 and was leader of Liberals from 1935 until he lost his seat in the 1945 general election by 61 votes in a tight three-way contest. He stood again in 1950 but lost a second time by 269 votes. The Liberal Party itself didn’t do much better dropping from 21 seats to 12 in 1945, going down to 9 seats in 1950, and reaching its nadir of 6 seats in 1951. His replacement as leader Clement Davies was apparently considered to be more of a caretaker but ended up stay in in post for 11 years, some seeing his period in office as lost time whilst others as an achievement for keeping the party together as a going concern.

So what happens if Sinclair is able to keep his seat in 1945, and then possibly again? In the latter case he suffered a small stroke in 1952, and a larger one in 1959, so chances are he steps down in 1955 at the latest. Not knowing much about the Liberal Party of the time and personalities involved do people think he would do better or worse than Davies or were outside factors larger than anything else? The other big question is who would replace him. Would a leadership election in 1952 be too soon for for Grimond to throw his hat in the ring? Depending on your view of Davies if he did then it might not end up changing much. Finding a way to keep Megan Lloyd George about amuses me but is probably not a realistic prospect.

 

[RyanF]

I do believe Churchill gave some consideration to asking the local association to stand aside in favour of Sinclair. Also, Sinclair anticipated a quick return to Parliament since his successor Eric Gandar Dower said he would only serve until the conclusion of the War with Japan. He kept on resigning and then un-resigning intending to trigger a by-election but always backed out. Sinclair sadly kept waiting for the by-election that never materialised. Might not take much for him to not run, he even said he was not a Unionist candidate but one of the National Government until the war with Japan was over.

In the long run it might actually mean the end of the Liberal Party, Sinclair and Churchill were friendly as I remember and like the National Liberals the Prime Minister intended to offer the Liberals the opportunity to remain in Cabinet. Bringing them closer to the Conservatives and the National Liberals, a merger with either or both might not be out of the question.