1904 Normanton by-election

[1] The constituency returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

The death of Benjamin Pickard the sitting Lib-Lab Member of Parliament for Normanton in 1904 meant a vacancy and a by-election in the division.

[4] In addition he had a strong and close association with the late MP, Benjamin Pickard, through his work as a trade unionist going back nearly 30 years.

He regretted the abolition of school boards elected by ratepayers in their district, which had been popular with radicals and their replacement by local education authorities under the control of county or borough councils.

Nonconformist electors objected that their local taxes were being used to support the teaching of religious views to which they were opposed, ‘Rome on the Rates' was their rallying cry.

Parrott's third policy priority was fiscal reform, in particular opposing a levy on the export of coal, as coal-owners were cutting wage rates and laying off miners to pay for this tax.

There was the usual round of public meetings but with the preponderance of outside help and speakers being on the Lib-Lab side and the Conservative candidate suffering more at the expense of hecklers at his events.

It was also reported that support for Parrott from Parliamentary speakers had been less than anticipated with many village meetings in the mining areas having been only sparsely attended but this was not helped by the weather which was generally cold and snowy.