Mr. Henderson was returned in the by-election for Widnes by
a majority of 987. At the General Election, Colonel Hall Walker, who has been raised to the peerage, retained his old seat for the Coalition by a majority of 3,694. At the by-election the Unionist vote for Mr. Fisher declined by 1,098, while the Labour poll increased by 3,583. We do not care for Mr. Herder. son's politics, but we are not sorry to see the Labour Party in the House reinforced by an ex-Minister who has had consider- able experience of public affairs. Mr. Henderson based his appeal to the electors largely on the fact that he had been a member of the War Cabinet and on the assertion that he might have been Ambassador to Russia had he cared to accept the post. It must be remembered, too, that the revolutionists can claim nothing from this electoral success. Mr. Henderson told the Trade Union Congress last week that " direct action " would be a fatal hin- drance to the growth of the Labour Party, and that the first thing to do was to induce all Trade Unionists to vote for Labour candidates, inasmuch as more than half of them failed to do so last December. Mr. Henderson is no Bolshevik.
Previous page
