1. Background

2. Election result

3. Aftermath

4. See also

5. References

The constituency of Smethwick in the West Midlands of England gained national media coverage at the 1964 general election, when Peter Griffiths of the Conservative Party gained the seat against the national trend, amidst controversy concerning racism.

Background

After the Second World War, Smethwick attracted a significant number of immigrants from Commonwealth countries, the largest ethnic group being Sikhs from the Punjab in India. There was also a background of factory closures, and a growing waiting list for local council housing. Griffiths ran a campaign critical of both the opposition, and the government's, immigration policies.^[1]

The Conservatives were widely reported as using the slogan "if you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour"^[2] but Colin Jordan, leader of the neo-Nazi British Movement, claimed that his members had produced the initial slogan as well as spread the poster and sticker campaign; Jordan's group in the past had also campaigned on other slogans, such as: "Don't vote – a vote for Tory, Labour or Liberal is a vote for more Blacks!".^[3] Griffiths denied that the slogan was racist, saying that:

Election result

The 1964 general election had involved a nationwide swing from the Conservatives to the Labour Party; which had resulted in the party gaining a narrow five seat majority. However, in Smethwick, the Conservative^[5] candidate, Griffiths gained the seat and unseated the sitting Labour MP, Patrick Gordon Walker, who had served as Shadow Foreign Secretary for the eighteen months prior to the election. Griffiths did, however, poll 436 votes less in 1964 than when he stood unsuccessfully for the Smethwick constituency in 1959:

Figures nevertheless show that votes for Labour's Patrick Gordon Walker had been in decline from the 1950 general election onwards, culminating in this 1964 defeat by Peter Griffiths. See Smethwick (UK Parliament constituency) for details.

Aftermath

Following the election result, a British branch of the Ku Klux Klan was formed, and Black and ethnic minority residents in the area had burning crosses put through their letterboxes.^[1] Peter Griffiths was declared "a parliamentary leper" by Harold Wilson, the new Labour Prime Minister. Griffiths, in his maiden speech to the Commons, pointed out what he believed were the real problems his constituency faced, including factory closures and over 4,000 families awaiting council accommodation. Patrick Gordon Walker subsequently lost the Leyton by-election, 1965, in a usually safe Labour seat, and the election result meant that Malcolm X would visit Smethwick^[6] to show solidarity with the black and minority ethnic communities in the area (in particular, the black and Asian community). Nine days after he visited Marshall Street, Malcolm X was shot dead in New York.^[7]

The Labour Party regained the seat at the 1966 general election when Andrew Faulds became the new Member of Parliament.

Malcolm's visit to Smethwick was "no accident"; an official policy of racial segregation was attempted to be put into place in Smethwick's housing allocation, with houses on Marshall Street in Smethwick being let only to white British residents. In 1964, a delegation of white residents successfully petitioned the Conservative council to compulsorily buy vacant houses to prevent non-whites from buying the houses. This, however, was prevented by Labour housing minister Richard Crossman, who refused to allow the council to borrow the money in order to enact their policy.^[8]

The actions taken have been described as "ugly Tory racism" which "killed rational debate about immigration".^[5] However, colour bars were then common, preventing non-whites from using facilities. The Labour club in Smethwick operated one, as did the local Sandwell Youth Club, which was run by one of the town's Labour councillors.^[8]

See also

• Racism in the UK Conservative Party

References

• Lescher, Kibbey & Mahoney
• Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde
• Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Cocteau)
• Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (game)
• Les Chevaliers de la Table ronde (Hervé)
• Les Chiefs (film)
• Les Chisholm
• Leschiv Soerensen
• Leschke
• Lesch, Michael
• Lesch-Nyhan disease
• Les chuchoteuses
• Les Chutes-de-la-Chaudière (disambiguation)
• Les Châteaux de sable
• Lesch–Nyhan Syndrome
• Les cinq gentlemen maudits
• Les cinq sous de Lavarède
• Les Clefs d'Or
• Les climats du vignoble de Bourgogne
• Les clés de bagnole
• Les Cobras d'Apt XIII
• Les Compagnons de la Chanson
• Les Comptes rendus de I'Académie des sciences
• Le Scomunicate di San Valentino
• Les Confins du Monde