Combined English Universities was a university constituency represented in the United Kingdom Parliament (from 1918 until 1950). It was formed by enfranchising and combining all the English universities, except for Cambridge, Oxford and London which were already separately represented. The constituency effectively represented the red brick universities and Durham University with two members of parliament.

Boundaries

This university constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1918 and abolished in 1950 by the Representation of the People Act 1948.

The original proposal of the Speaker's Conference, which considered electoral reform before the 1918 legislation was prepared, was to combine all the English and Welsh universities except for Oxford and Cambridge into a three-member constituency. However, during consideration of the legislation, it was agreed that London University alone should continue to return one member. The University of Wales was also given its own seat. The other universities, which were still to be combined, had their proposed representation reduced to two members.^[1]

Combined English Universities was not a physical area. Its electorate consisted of the graduates of the universities included in the seat.

The universities represented by this constituency were Birmingham, Bristol, Durham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Reading (from August 1928) and Sheffield.

The constituency returned two members of Parliament, elected at general elections by the single transferable vote method of proportional representation. However, the first past the post system was used in by-elections.

Members of Parliament

This is a list of people who were elected to represent these English universities in the Parliament of the United Kingdom between 1918 and 1950. The elections were not held on the polling dates for general elections in the territorial constituencies. The university constituency elections were held over five days, not on the ordinary polling date, so that plural voting graduates could vote in their place of residence and then visit their university to participate in its election.

• Constituency created (1918)

Elections

There were six contested STV elections. The MPs in 1935 were returned unopposed. By-elections, to fill a single seat, used the first past the post or relative majority electoral system.

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1922: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2	3	4	5
	Unionist	Martin Conway	32.8	968	982	1,093
	National Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	27.7	819	821	849	883	1,009
	Independent	John Strong	19.4	571	575	595	611	813
	Labour	Leonard Woolf	12.2	361	361	365	366	eliminated
	Ind. Unionist	Wilfred Barnard Faraday	4.8	141	206	eliminated
	Ind. Unionist	Sidney C. Lawrence	3.1	90	eliminated
Electorate: 3,967   Valid: 2,946   Quota: 983   Turnout: 74.3

General election 1923: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Martin Conway	1,711	44.1	+11.3
	Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	1,316	34.0	+5.3
	Labour	Joseph John Findlay	850	21.9	+9.7
Total votes			3,877
Quota			1,293
Turnout			5,008	77.4	+3.1

• As two candidates achieved the quota only one count was necessary

General Election 1924: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Unionist	Martin Conway	50.4	2,231
	Liberal	H. A. L. Fisher	30.1	1,333	2,064
	Labour	Joseph John Findlay	19.5	861	885
Electorate: 5,655   Valid: 4,425   Quota: 1,476   Turnout: 78.2

1926 Combined English Universities by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Alfred Hopkinson	2,343	53.9	+3.5
	Liberal	Ramsay Muir	2,000	46.1	+12.1
Majority			343	7.8	N/A
Turnout			4,343	66.7	−11.5
Registered electors			6,513
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

Rathbone

Conway

General Election 1929: Combined English Universities (2 seats)

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Unionist	Martin Conway	26.8	2,679	4,321
	Independent	Eleanor Rathbone	33.3	3,331	3,394
	Liberal	Robert Seymour Conway	22.3	2,231	2,281
	Unionist	Amherst Selby-Bigge	17.6	1,762	eliminated
Electorate: 13,775   Valid: 10,003   Quota: 3,335   Turnout: 72.6

Notes

References

• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1972). Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885–1972. Parliamentary Reference Publications.
• Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1977). British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949. Macmillan.
• Pugh, Martin (1978). Electoral Reform in War and Peace 1906–18. Routledge & Kegan Paul.
• Stenton, M.; Lees, S., eds. (1979). Who's Who of British members of parliament: Volume III 1919–1945. The Harvester Press.
• Stenton, M.; Lees, S., eds. (1981). Who's Who of British members of parliament, Volume IV 1945–1979. The Harvester Press.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 5)