The by-election was caused by the death of the sitting Coalition Conservative MP, Sir Charles Hanson on 17 January 1922.

The result at the General Election in 1918 was; The Coalition was fighting on its record of having won the war and negotiated the peace and was relying on appeals to the electorate of being allowed to get on with the task of steering the country through the difficult domestic and international waters currently flowing around the British ship of state.

Sir Austen Chamberlain in a letter to General Poole asked for the support of the electors for the giving of peace to Ireland and the restoration of that economic and financial stability necessary for good trade and prosperity.

[11] One question which was raised during the round of by-elections being fought at this time, as the date of the next general election neared, was if there was a some kind of electoral arrangement between the Independent, Asquithian Liberals and the Labour Party.

[1] The local Labour Party's active help during Foot's campaign caused the Cornish Times to say that he had "the open blessing of the Socialists".

The Times tended to accept these denials, given the difficulty of imposing national arrangements on independently minded local Liberal and Labour constituency organisations, but clearly it was then in the interests of the opposition parties to avoid fighting each other as far as possible, as it made it easier to for the government candidate to win.