Isaac Foot - Parliamentary Career

Parliamentary Career

Foot first stood for parliament in Totnes in January 1910, losing to the sitting Liberal Unionist, F. B. Mildmay He then stood twice for Bodmin, but was unsuccessful. At Plymouth Sutton in the by-election of November 1919 he was beaten by Nancy Astor, who became the first woman MP in Britain and a lifelong friend of Foot.

Foot was elected as Member of Parliament for Bodmin at a by-election in February 1922, retaining his seat in the general elections of 1922 and 1923. He lost his seat in October 1924 but regained it in the 1929 General Election, when the Liberals took all five Cornish seats. He held the seat until he lost again in November 1935.

Foot served on the Round Table Conference on India in 1930–31 and on Burma in 1931 and was also on the Joint Select Committee on India. His championing of the poor of the subcontinent earnt him the sobriquet of "the member for the Depressed Classes".

In 1931 he became Minister of Mines in the National Government, but resigned in protest at the protectionist Ottawa Agreements.

He fought two more elections, at St Ives in 1937, and Tavistock in 1945, losing both.