The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Liberal Member of Parliament (MP), Frank Kingsley Griffith (23 December 1889 – 25 September 1962) vacated his seat on becoming a County Court Judge.
Griffith was first elected as the constituency's MP at the 1928 Middlesbrough West by-election, caused by the death of the previous Liberal MP Walter Trevelyan Thomson.
Accordingly, the Liberal Party nominated a candidate, but no Labour or Conservative representative was put forward.
The Liberal Party candidate, supporting the coalition government, was Harcourt Johnstone (19 May 1895 – 1 March 1945).
Johnstone had previously been MP for Willesden East 1923 – 1924 and South Shields 1931 – 1935.