William Parrott - Politics

Politics

Parrott had cut his teeth in politics locally and was a member of the Barnsley School Board for three years and had been an elected member of Barnsley Town Council for nine years. He was however contemplating a Parliamentary career and had been adopted as Liberal candidate in East Leeds. However the death of Ben Pickard the sitting Lib–Lab MP for Normanton in 1904 meant a vacancy and a by-election. Parrott was selected as candidate and he won the seat by a majority of 3,946 over his Conservative opponent. There was no Liberal candidate as since 1885 the Yorkshire Miners Association had had an agreement with the Liberals allowing them nominate the candidate for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Pickard had held the seat at each election under this arrangement since the 1885 general election and generally supported the Liberals in Parliament in return. Parrott was a member of the Liberal Party and again generally voted with the Liberals in Parliament.

Parrott made his maiden speech in the House of Commons during the Finance Bill or budget debate on 19 July 1904, in opposition to a coal levy which he feared would lower the wages of miners or put their jobs at risk. There were already thousands of miners only working two days a week thanks to the levy as the coal owners were reducing costs by laying off men to claw back the money lost on the tax. On 18 February 1905, he was a member of a deputation of miners’ representatives to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Austen Chamberlain to urge that the one shilling duty on export coal should be repealed.