It 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 by-election was called following the death of George Cooper, who had gained the seat as part of the Liberal Party victory in the 1906 general election.

[2] The local Liberals might have chosen Harold Glanville, a Bermondsey man who represented neighbouring Rotherhithe on the London County Council.

There was a significant speech made by Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George, at Limehouse on 30 July 1909 in which he outlined the proposals in the People's Budget.

In particular, he pressed for wholesale reform of the workhouse system, for better treatment of the deserving poor, and removal of the taint of pauper from children.

A presiding officer, George Thornley, was blinded in one eye in one of these attacks, and a Liberal agent suffered a severe burn to the neck.

After finishing bottom of the poll in the by-election, the Labour party withdrew from the contest; Salter later became MP for West Bermondsey in 1922.