1928 Middlesbrough West by-election

He urged the government to put in hand great schemes of work and to allow local authorities to do the same to improve the infrastructure and create employment.

It was ludicrous he argued to be paying the unemployed benefit to do nothing while improvement schemes such those at Middlesbrough docks were held up because of poor government accounting.

Sadler had previously put forward an argument that those receiving poor law relief (unemployment benefit) should lose their right to vote if they refused to take work.

[6] It was reported however that Sadler was a strong defender of the Unionist government record in office and was particularly assured on the questions of safeguarding in industry (protectionism) and the economy.

When Griffith was appointed a county court judge in 1940, the seat was retained for the Liberals by Harcourt Johnstone in the resulting by-election, although under the wartime truce between the political parties, he was not opposed.

This turned out to be a false dawn for the Liberals however, as the result of the 1929 general election produced a strong advance in terms of the popular vote and percentage of poll share but only a modest improvement in the number of seats held overall.