In April 1951 Davies, who had held the Westhoughton constituency in south Lancashire for thirty years, announced that he would not be standing for parliament again.
[1] He subsequently resigned from the Commons due to ill health, and the writ to hold a by-election to fill the vacancy was moved on 31 May.
Nominations for the by-election closed on 12 June, and there were only two candidates: Tom Price, the forty-eight-year-old chief legal officer of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers for the Labour Party; and Frank J.
[3] On 14 June, Winston Churchill, Conservative leader, issued a statement in support of Land and attacking the Labour government who he blamed for the fall in the value of the pound.
[4] Price campaigned on the record of the Labour government, claiming it had done a great deal to improve the life of ordinary people.