21.5%. In 1922 the Independent candidate was thought to have won only Liberal support in polling 10.8%. A campaign lacking the intensity of the Liberal campaign run in 1921 would not be treated seriously. Constitutionalist The 1921 by-election had shown a willingness among the mass Unionist electorate to vote for an unofficial candidate. However, both Unionists standing in that election were standing on a ticket opposed to the Coalition government that Churchill was advocating. It would take a personality like that of Churchill to have any chance of winning. Campaign Unionist MPs chaired each of Churchill's election committees. The Beaverbrook and Rothermere newspapers supported his candidature. Unionist leader Stanley Baldwin stayed officially neutral. When leading Unionist Leo Amery campaigned against Churchill and in favour of Nicholson, Baldwin allowed another leading Unionist Arthur Balfour to release a public letter to the press supporting Churchill. Celebrity sportsmen, jockey Steve Donoghue and boxer Jimmy Wilde publicly supported Churchill. The Labour party supporting Daily Herald ran stories on 'Wealthy Westminster Housing Scandal' in an effort to appeal to the working class part of the constituency living in bad housing. Result The Unionist candidate Otho Nicholson held the seat for the party. Nicholson won by just 43 votes over Churchill; At the end of the count Churchill was 33 votes behind Nicholson, at which point Churchill's agent believing his candidate could still win requested a recount. It was only to see the winning majority of Nicholson increase to 43. Churchill had come close to defeating the party machines. The extent of his support was mainly due to the backing he received from significant sections of the London press who backed him as a personality rather than in support for a Unionist/Liberal coalition. Aftermath The action of the Abbey Liberal Association in opposing Churchill marked the parting of the ways between the Liberal party and a man who was, after Lloyd George, the most popular individual in the party. At the 1924 general election, Nicholson held the seat as the only Unionist candidate. Churchill was re-elected to Parliament elsewhere as a Constitutionalist, one of only a handful of candidates to win election under that label. Brockway later became a Labour MP for Leyton East. Scott Duckers did not stand again. References 1924 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in London constituencies Elections in the City of Westminster 1924 in