Beddoe Rees - The 1923 General Election

The 1923 General Election

Rees, despite his public support for the traditional Liberal policy of Free Trade was not an ideological free-trader. He voted in Parliament for the Safeguarding of Industries Act and was in favour of some measure of protection for home markets, an attitude typical of the Bristol merchant class. Despite this, Rees took his stand as a free-trader again at the 1923 general election, presumably to enable him to benefit from the Liberal campaign nationally in support of free trade following Stanley Baldwin’s calling of the election to gain a mandate for imposing tariffs. This approach allowed the Liberals to gain the votes of free-trade Conservatives while retaining their traditional support in rural seats. In Bristol South, Rees again had the full support of the local Conservative Association as well as the Liberals in his fight against the Labour candidate D J Vaughan on an avowedly anti-socialist ticket. It was a noisy and unpleasant campaign with meetings descending into violence. However Rees beat Vaughan by 15,235 to 13,701 - a majority of 1,534.