The by-election was held due to the succession to the peerage of the incumbent Conservative MP, William Cavendish-Bentinck.
When the Labour and Liberal parties joined the Coalition government, it was agreed that any by-election candidate defending a government seat would receive a letter of endorsement jointly signed by all the party leaders.
He was the brother-in-law of Denis Kendall, the recently elected Independent MP for Grantham.
40 year-old Solicitor Flt-Lt. Edward Moeran, who had served in Gibraltar, was the Common Wealth party candidate.
The Dawrant campaign was belatedly able to establish its candidate as the main challenger to the Conservative, with the support of Independent MPs Kendall, George Reakes and his election agent[4] William Brown, along with the Liberal MPs Clement Davies and Tom Horabin.