The election was caused by the elevation to the peerage of the sitting Liberal MP, Sir Frederick Cawley.
Cawley was opposed by Henry May for the newly formed Central Co-operative Parliamentary Representation Committee of which he was the secretary.
[6] For the government the principal issue was the continuing prosecution of the war and it sought the support of the voters for that end.
There was a strong danger that Cawley’s election would be seen as inevitable, given his father’s position and former majority and as he was actively serving his country in the field.
[7] May tried to appeal on the food question[7] and by extolling the virtues of cooperation as the purest democratic movement and anticipating the triumph of the working –class once the war was over.