1910 election At the
general election in January 1910 Stewart stood as the Conservative candidate for the Wirral, a seat which had been held by the Conservatives from its creation in
1885 until won by the
Liberals in
1906. The sitting Liberal MP was the industrialist
William Lever, who did not stand again, and the Liberal candidate was Edward Jones. and the campaign was strongly contested on both sides, with both candidates benefiting from a lot of support from Liverpool and the other large towns in
Lancashire. Stewart won the seat with a majority of 1,447 (7.6%), and held it at the
December 1910 election with an increased majority of 2,316 (13.0%). In January 1912, Stewart was the principal speaker at a public meeting in
Flixton opposing
Irish Home Rule. In May that year, he wanted to speak in the Commons in the
second reading debate on the
Home Rule Bill, but was not called by the speaker. After the signing of the
Anglo-Irish Treaty in December 1921, which concluded the
Irish War of Independence and led to the establishment of the
Irish Free State in 26 of Ireland's 32 counties, Stewart was one of 58 MPs who voted against ratifying the treaty. In February 1922, he was one of 45 MPs from
Great Britain to vote against the second reading of the
Irish Free State (Agreement) Bill, which gave legal effect to the treaty. He also opposed the
suffragist movement, and was listed as a Parliamentary supporter of the
National League for Opposing Woman Suffrage. His constituency adjoined the
Port of Liverpool, and Stewart took an interest in maritime issues. In 1913 he supported legislation against dangerous deckloads such as locomotives, which could break loose in a storm, and in 1918 he successfully lobbied for the expenses of repatriating merchant seamen being released from enemy countries to be paid by public funds. In August 1913, he proposed using funds from the
Boxer Indemnity to establish a British university in central China. During the
Great War, he was one of a group of 8 MPs who visited the
Western Front in December 1915, and wrote an account of his visit for
The Times newspaper. In February 1916 he was appointed to a committee to advise the
Board of Trade on matters arising under the Trading with the Enemy Amendment Act 1906, and in 1917 he became a member of the Unionist war Committee, joining its Enemy Influence Sub-committee.
Post-war elections Stewart was re-elected unopposed at the
1918 general election, standing as a
Coalition Conservative. He held his seat at the
1922 general election in a three-cornered contest with 51% of the votes, a majority of 4,874 (19.3%) over his Liberal opponent
Stephen Roxby Dodds. The
Labour Party candidate came a poor third. At the
next general election, in 1923, Labour did not field a candidate in the Wirral. However, the Wirral was no exception to the nationwide pattern of a large
swing to the Liberals, and Dodds won the seat with a majority of 1,840 votes (7.2%). The title was conferred at a ceremony on 7 March 1924, in the
throne room of
Buckingham Palace. Stewart died aged 72 on 5 December 1929, at his home in
Sloane Street, London. His estate was valued at £71,834 (net). == References ==