West Toxteth By-election Two or three interesting conclusions may be
drawn from the West Toxteth by-election in which the Labour candidate, Mr. Gibbins, re-won the seat from the Con- servatives by more than 5,000 votes. Firstly, there is no enthusiasm for national Government in this Con:. stituency, the Conservative scoring less than half the votes secured in 1931, and nearly 6,000 less than in the unsuccessful contest of 1920. Secondly, political interest generally must be at a very low ebb in West Toxteth, since even the successful Labour candidate did not realize the total secured in his severe defeat three years ago. There is one other conclusion which may be drawn from a contest in many respects so inconclusive. Liverpool is the city in which the late Sir Archibald Salvidge built up that powerful Conservative organization which provided the model for his party of the means by which a solid working-class vote could be enlisted in the Tory interest. A city that might be expected normally to be predomin- antly Labour became predominantly Conservative. That situation is now at an end.
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