Michael Joseph Savage Labour Peter Carr Labour The Auckland West by-election of 1940 was a by-election for the electorate of Auckland West held on 18 May 1940 during the 26th New Zealand Parliament.

The by-election resulted from the death on 27 March 1940 of the previous member Michael Joseph Savage, the revered prime minister whose terminal illness had not been made public.

The other aspirants for the Labour nomination were Charles Bailey, Mary Dreaver, L. W. Holt, N. E. Herring, John Thomas Jennings, Thomas Percival McCready, Winnifred Moore, Joe Sayegh, John Stewart and Jeremiah James Sullivan.

Lee's chief lieutenant Norman Douglas was approached by the DLP to contest the by-election in an effort to boost the new party's publicity, but Douglas declined to stand.

Wilfred Fortune, who stood as an independent, subsequently became a National candidate (1943) and MP (1946) for the Eden electorate.