Labour selected the former leader of the Miners Federation of Great Britain, 66-year old Robert Smillie, a founder of the Independent Labour Party who had stood unsuccessfully at many previous parliamentary elections.
Smillie's only opponent was the Liberal candidate, fifty-year-old Newcastle-based, Frank Thornborough.
[1] The Conservative Party had come third in Morpeth at the 1922 general election, but chose not to field a candidate at this by-election.
This was expected to help the Liberal campaign as it was thought that many Conservative voters would not vote for a Scottish socialist.
Morpeth remained a Labour-held constituency until the party split at the 1931 general election, when the Conservative Godfrey Nicholson served one term.