On This Day
12 January 1906
Announcement of the first results in the 1906 general election
The first constituency to declare was Ipswich. ‘Ip Ip Ip Ipswich’ ran a placard for the radical newspaper The Star as the Liberals recorded their first gain. The following day Lancashire polled and out of the 56 seats declared, 29 went to the Liberals, 12 to Labour and 1 to the Nationalists, leaving the Tories with just 14. Amongst the casualties was Unionist leader Arthur Balfour who lost at Manchester. One of the new Liberal Manchester MPs was Winston Churchill who emerged victorious in a contest with future Tory Home Secretary William Joynson-Hicks. Speaking at the Reform Club on the day of his election Churchill declared, ‘ Do protectionists think that after 60 years Manchester cannot tell truth from falsehood and has forgotten the work of Cobden and Bright or that Lancashire is asleep and would be false to her traditions? We have given the new Government a splendid send-off and the Liberal army will march on without a pause to a complete triumph.’