Frederick Handel Booth (1867 – 24 February 1947)[1] was a British politician, who served as a Liberal Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontefract from 1910 to 1918.
He was born near Manchester in 1867, and attended the high school in Bolton le Moors.
[3] In 1917, he was found liable and guilty of fraud in the high-profile case of Gruban v Booth, having defrauded a German-born businessman of his company and had him interned.
[4] At the 1918 general election, his scandalous seizure of a company resulting in nearly £5000 of damages plus legal fees awarded against him, led to the party forcing him to contest the new firmly coal-mining-centric seat, several miles south, Wentworth, where he was defeated[5] by the Labour candidate in what has proved by length of tenure that party's safest seat to the present date, if counting its main successor as a continuation.
Handel Booth's previous seat, Pontefract, remained Liberal until the 1922 general election.