[2] He subsequently worked as a bill poster before gaining ownership of theatres in Bristol, Bedford and Dover.

[5] Slater requested a demonstration and challenged Houdini to perform a handcuff escape in the jail section at Scotland Yard.

Houdini successfully escaped from the handcuffs with ease, impressing William Melville the first chief of the British Secret Service Bureau.

[9] He was re-elected in 1929 with a much-increased majority, but when Labour split at the 1931 general election he lost the seat to a Conservative supporter of the National Government.

[9] He was elected to the London County Council as a councillor for Southwark Central in the same year he lost his parliamentary seat.