The 1945 Smethwick by-election was a by-election held on 1 October 1945 for the British House of Commons constituencyofSmethwickinStaffordshire (now in the West Midlands county).
The by-election was caused by the death of the town's newly elected Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), 63-year-old Alfred Dobbs, who was killed in a car accident on 27 July 1945, only one day after his election at the 1945 general election[1] Apart from some MPs who were elected posthumously, Dobbs remains the United Kingdom's shortest-serving MP.
There were only two candidates in the by-election, Labour and Conservative; the Liberal Party had not fielded a candidate in Smethwick since the 1929 general election.
The result was a victory for the Labour candidate Patrick Gordon Walker, who held the seat comfortably with a slightly increased majority on a modestly reduced turnout. Gordon Walker was an MP for nearly 30 years, serving twice as a Cabinet minister.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Patrick Gordon Walker | 19,364 | 68.8 | +2.9 | |
| Conservative | G.H. Edgar | 8,762 | 31.2 | −2.9 | |
| Majority | 10,602 | 37.6 | +5.8 | ||
| Turnout | 43,020 | 65.4 | −7.0 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | +2.9 | |||
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