Labour Party. We aim at the abolition of poverty by the increased production of
wealth so that there may be enough wealth for all.’ She promised, if elected, to
demand for the workers ‘not cottages but better houses, fitted throughout with
hot water as well as bathrooms and labour-saving devices, which the
Government should help to finance’.^74 When Christabel called Davison and his
supporters ‘Bolsheviks’ and told the voters that they had to choose between the
Red Flag or the Union Jack, charges that were commonly made by
Conservative candidates during the 1918 election, the exchange of views
became more fiery.^75 Davison angrily retorted that the Labour Party worked for
social reform on constitutional lines ‘without breaking a single window, firing a
single pillar box or burning down a single church’. Contemptuously, he called
Christabel and her supporters ‘Christabelligerents’ who were famous for ‘all
things by turn and nothing long’. Sharply, he reminded the Women’s Party
candidate that it was ‘from a haven of safety in Paris’ that she had incited her
followers to violence.^76
Such insults did nothing to daunt Emmeline’s spirits. ‘Mother ... is abso-
lutely bent upon my getting elected’, Christabel told Lloyd George.^77 Since
Christabel was the only one of the sixteen women candidates standing for elec-
tion who had received the Coalition ‘coupon’, Emmeline felt sure her daughter
would be successful. Although lesser known Women Party workers such as Elsie
Bowerman, Christabel’s agent, Flora MacDonald, Phyllis Ayrton and the crip-
pled May Billinghurst worked hard on her daughter’s behalf, it was the celebrity
Emmeline Pankhurst who was the star of the show, feverishly sparing herself no
rest. On one occasion, she climbed in the rain onto a table in front of a beerless
public house and gave an impassioned speech ‘of mingled patriotism and zeal for
reform’ to a small group of working men, soldiers and boys who came out of the
mist to listen.^78 At other times, she proudly emphasised that her daughter was
not only the best candidate to represent the women and men voters but that
Christabel’s international status would make Smethwick ‘known to the whole of
the British Empire and the whole of the world’.^79 Emmeline’s hopes were
bolstered by the fact that an ardent supporter of the Women’s Party, Lord
Northcliffe, the influential press baron, made sure that positive coverage to the
campaign was given in his newspapers, including The Times.
One week after the country had gone to the polls on 14 December,
Emmeline heard the devastating news that Christabel had lost the election by a
narrow margin. A recount was demanded but Christabel had to concede defeat
by 775 votes. It was the bitterest disappointment of Emmeline’s life and no
consolation to know that the only successful woman candidate was Countess
Markievicz in Dublin, a Sinn Feiner who had pledged not to take her seat.^80
Christabel, who had been tired and depressed throughout the campaign, a
complication following from a recent attack of the lethal flu, seemed to accept
her failure better than her mother, probably because by this time, she had
converted to Second Adventism. As Larsen explains, Christabel identified with
the Church of England and its North American sister churches and was an
LEADER OF THE WOMEN’S PARTY