1929 Tamworth by-election

The 1929 Tamworth by-election was held on 2 December 1929. The by-election was held due to the resignation of the incumbent Conservative MP, Sir Edward Iliffe. It was won by the Conservative candidate Arthur Steel-Maitland.

Background
Sir Edward Iliffe had been MP for Tamworth since 1923. In the general elections of both 1923 and 1924 Iliffe had been returned unopposed. In the general election a few months earlier he had been challenged by Labour candidate George Horwill, but had been easily re-elected, with Horwill polling only 14,402 votes against Iliffe's total of 29,807.

Horwill, an ex-railway clerk who held a BSc degree from the University of London, was again the Labour candidate in the by-election. The new Conservative candidate was Arthur Steel-Maitland, a former cabinet minister who had been a member of parliament from 1910, but who had lost narrowly lost his Birmingham Erdington seat at the recent general election.

Result
The Unionist Party held the seat comfortably.

Aftermath
At the next election Steel-Maitland substantially increased his majority to over 34,000 votes.