The seat had become vacant when the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Joseph Batey had resigned from the House of Commons on 6 July 1942, by the procedural device of accepting the post of Steward of the Manor of Northstead.
The Labour Party selected as its candidate the 54-year-old James Dixon Murray.
(The most recent was Maldon in June 1940, where an independent Labour candidate won what had previously been a safe seat for the Conservatives).
He held the Spennymoor seat until the constituency's abolition for the 1950 general election.
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