When the result was announced, he gave a speech complaining about the system of deposits, which, he claimed, made it difficult for representatives of the working class to stand.
However, each member of the group was associated with a failed project; in Tapsell's case, it was that he had performed poorly when organising the party's support of textile workers locked out in West Yorkshire in 1930.
Initially, he was made Political Commissar of the British base at Albacete,[11] and in this role, he was asked to investigate the May Days in Barcelona; he placed responsibility for the events on the Communist Party of Spain.
[13] Although battalion commander Fred Copeman managed to get him released, after the battle, both were recalled to London alongside Jock Cunningham and George Aitken to explain the events.
Cunningham and Aitken were prevented from returning, but Tapsell went back to the front line later in the year, and in November, he was made Political Commissar of the whole British Battalion.