Dundee by election, 1908

There was a by-election in the dual member constituency of Dundee in 1908.

The Liberal MP Edmund Robertson was elevated to the peerage as 1st Baron Lochee.

Thirty-four-year-old Winston Churchill was selected by the local Liberal Association to be their candidate. Churchill had been elected Liberal MP for Manchester North West at the 1906 General Election but had lost his seat at the Manchester North West by-election, 1908 on 24 April. Churchill had been appointed to the Cabinet by H. H. Asquith as President of the Board of Trade. Under the law at the time, a newly appointed Cabinet Minister was obliged to seek re-election at a by-election. So he was looking around for a seat to allow him back into parliament.

Sir George Baxter, a 55-year-old local man was chosen by the Dundee Unionists. He was a linen and jute owner and Chairman of Dundee and District Liberal Unionist Association, ever since its creation in 1886. He contested Montrose Burghs in 1895. Baxter was the son of the former Liberal MP for Montrose Burgh's William Edward Baxter and a great-nephew of the philanthropists Sir David Baxter and Mary Ann Baxter.

The local Labour Party selected 38-year-old G. H. Stuart as their candidate. He was born in Oldham, became a postman and an activist in the Postmen's Federation. He also became active in the Labour Party, and stood unsuccessfully in York at the 1906 general election, His candidature was endorsed by the Scottish section of the party, but the National Executive refused to back him, as the party already held the other Dundee seat, and was concerned that it would over-reach itself.

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