1902 Leeds North by-election

They were considering Philip Snowden who later became a Labour MP and Chancellor of the Exchequer and two other local men as candidates,[3] as well as T. B. Duncan, Secretary of the Shop Assistants Association.

Keir Hardie visited Leeds with other top Labour and Trade union officials in early July 1902 to discuss the by-election.

Many Liberals were strongly nonconformist and the idea that Church of England and Roman Catholic schools should be funded from the rates, a form of local taxation, was anathema to them.

[9] Barran, a Baptist by religion,[10] spoke out strongly against these plans at his first public meeting on 8 July 1902, saying the proposed Bill was biased towards the Anglican Church and what he described as ‘the clerical party’.

[13] Other topical questions raised by the candidates included Irish Home Rule and Free Trade versus Tariff Reform.

[15] Rosebery the former prime minister had become increasingly out of step with the mainstream of Liberal MPs on social reform and the role of the Empire.

There was a great upsurge of hope among Liberals that the result would send a message to the government on their plans for education reform [13] but these were not maintained and the Bill passed later that year.

One historian of Leeds has written that while dissent was always strong in the city, it was becoming more confident and less deferential as the middle class element in the chapels grew with the economy.