John Edward Sutton was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 trades unionist and Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 politician.

At the age of 14, Sutton took up employment at Bradford Colliery, Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

. He became a check-weighman and secretary of the Bradford branch of the Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation

Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation

The Lancashire and Cheshire Miners' Federation was a trade union which operated on the Lancashire Coalfield in North West England.-Background:...

. In 1894 he was elected to Manchester City Council as an Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

 councillor for Bradford

Bradford, Manchester

Bradford is a district and electoral ward in the city of Manchester, England, two miles north east of the city centre. Bradford was for many years an economically deprived area but has undergone regeneration with the building of the City of Manchester Stadium which hosted the 2002 Commonwealth...

 ward, an area previously represented by Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

.

At the general election of January 1910 Sutton was elected as Labour Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 (MP) for Manchester East

Manchester East (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester East was one of six single-member parliamentary constituencies created in 1885 by the division of the existing three-member Parliamentary Borough of Manchester...

, the constituency that included the Bradford area. He held the seat until its abolition in 1918.

At the 1918 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1918

The United Kingdom general election of 1918 was the first to be held after the Representation of the People Act 1918, which meant it was the first United Kingdom general election in which nearly all adult men and some women could vote. Polling was held on 14 December 1918, although the count did...

 Sutton stood in the new seat of Manchester Clayton

Manchester Clayton (UK Parliament constituency)

Manchester Clayton was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system....

, losing to the Conservative, Edward Hopkinson

Edward Hopkinson

Edward Hopkinson was a British electrical engineer and Conservative politician.He was the fourth son of John Hopkinson, an engineer who was mayor of Manchester in 1882/83. Hopkinson was educated at Owen's College, Manchester and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He graduated from Emmanuel in 1881 and...

. However Hopkinson died in 1922, forcing a by-election, and Sutton was selected as Labour candidate. The Coalition Government was very unpopular due to high unemployment and severe cutbacks recommended by the Geddes Report

Geddes Axe

The Geddes Axe was the drive for public economy and retrenchment in UK government expenditure recommended in the 1920s by a Committee on National Expenditure chaired by Sir Eric Geddes and with Lord Inchcape, Lord Faringdon, Lord Maclay and Sir Guy Granet also members.-Background:During and after...

, and Sutton easily won the seat. He held the seat at subsequent general elections until 1931

United Kingdom general election, 1931

The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...

 when a large swing to the Conservatives was reflected in Clayton. William Flanagan

William Henry Flanagan

-External links:...

, Sutton's opponent in the 1922 by-election took the seat. Sutton did not contest another parliamentary election.

External links