Charles Stanton

Who was Charles Stanton?

Charles Butt Stanton was a British politician. He served as an Independent Labour Member of Parliament from 1915 to 1922.

Stanton began his political career as a miners' leader at Aberdare where he was a prominent ember of the Independent Labour Party. In 1906 he was elected to the Aberdare Urban District Council as a member for the Aberaman Ward. A militant, he was critical of the more moderate approach adopted by the local Labour MP, Keir Hardie, whom he would succeed in 1915 as MP for Merthyr Tydfil, where he stood in a by-election against the Labour Party candidate, James Winstone, and was backed by the British Workers League. He supported the Lloyd George Coalition Government and in 1918 was elected on a National Democratic and Labour Party candidate for the new constituency of Aberdare, but was defeated in 1922 by an official Labour candidate.