There are two brief notes from Dr William Grant, the ERDC Medical Officer, in Hubert Tunney’s surviving correspondence, one undated and one from 1934. Both are supportive of Tunney's 'rightful position' at the Council elections.
|
|
As well as his duties with the Easington Rural District Council, Grant was active in the Seaham Division Labour Party in the early 1930s. Crucially, Grant sided with Ramsay MacDonald when the latter formed the coalition National Government in August 1931 in response to a growing debt crisis that was in danger of bankrupting the country.
|
|
Most of his Labour colleagues deserted MacDonald after the formation of the National Government and jumped ship to the cosy moral high ground where they were safe from taking any tough decisions. Most of his cabinet resigned and the new cabinet was mainly made up of Conservatives. The general feeling in Labour circles was that he had sold out to the Tories.
|
|
Grant was the intermediary between MacDonald and his increasingly angry constituency party as the latter moved against him in August 1931. The party asked him to resign his seat. However, the constituency party was divided. MacDonald's constituency agent, W Coxon, a South Hetton schoolmaster, was against him, but Dr Grant was on his side. As David Marquand recounts in his 1977 biography Ramsay MacDonald,
|
|
'.....by no means all the Seaham Party members were as hostile as Coxon. On September 1st, George Broomfield, the previous agent, wrote, "I am not prepared to condemn or ostracize JRM till I get to know fully the case....I wish you all God's speed in what as yet I believe to be an honest and honourable attempt to do the right thing." On the same day, William Grant, the Easington medical officer of health and one of MacDonald's closest friends in the constituency wrote, "I had a visit from Coxon last night and was disgusted.....The Executive consisted of 15 and was ruled by one or two who are after promotion....."
|
|
The local party voted heavily to support the policy of the national Labour Party. However, only by the narrowest of margins, 40 votes to 39, did they back a resolution demanding that MacDonald be asked to resign his seat.
|
|
In the October 1931 General Election MacDonald, now standing on the National Party ticket, managed to convince most of the Seaham Electorate that his actions had been a case of putting the interests of the country before those of the Labour Party.
|
|
The official Labour Candidate opposing him was his very same former agent, Coxon. However, the plot thickens, because according to this 1933 news item, Hubert Tunney was the ‘next candidate for selection’ when Coxon was chosen by the Seaham Division Labour Party to oppose McDonald.
|
|
MacDonald was re-elected over Coxon with a majority of almost 6,000, gaining 28,978 votes to Coxon's 23,027. This caused deep wounds to the Labour Party both in the constituency and nationally which lasted for generations. It was in the aftermath of Coxon’s heavy defeat that the outsider E Shinwell was the surprise selection of the Seaham Labour Party as as their new MP candidate in 1932.
|
|
From surviving newspapers clippings--see the next page--it seems Hubert Tunney was sceptical about the National Government’s ability to defend miners’ interests. I would guess that, like George Broomfield, he would have given MacDonald the benefit of the doubt, at least for a while.
|
|
NEXT PAGE
|
|
