William Nathaniel Jones - Polling

Polling

Polling day itself was affected by bad weather with heavy rain dampening the candidates’ enthusiasm on the day and, it was reported, having a detrimental effect on turnout. However the official figures showed a turnout of 76.6% an improvement over the previous general election when only 68% had turned out to vote. In the end, Jones had majority of just 47 votes over his Labour opponent, polling 10,201 to Hopkins’s 10,154 with Mansel for the Tories on 8,361. The drastic reduction in the size of the majority, even taking into account the fact that the Tories contested the seat, was a disappointment to the Liberals. Perhaps Liberal supporters felt they had been taken for granted by their party. Of their two previous MPs one had resigned to cause a by-election to find a seat for Sir Alfred Mond and then Mond himself had defected to the Tories without standing down to seek a mandate for his new party.