The by-election was held due to the death of the incumbent Liberal MP, Charles Palmer.

[1] At the 1906 general election Palmer had had a straight fight with Labour; The sitting Liberal MP, the 84-year-old Sir Charles Palmer, had announced that he did not intend to stand for Parliament at the next election and the local Liberals had already selected Spencer Leigh Hughes as his replacement.

Hughes faced, Labour, Conservative and Irish Parliamentary Party opponents.

[3] For Curran, it was a short-lived triumph as he was unseated by another Liberal at the following General Election in January 1910.

In 1909 Hughes was the unsuccessful Liberal candidate at the 1909 Bermondsey by-election.