United Kingdom general election, 1886

The 1886 United Kingdom general election took place from 1–27 July 1886. The election was called almost immediately after the Liberal victory the previous year. The increasing divide over the Home Rule issue caused the Liberals to split in two, resulting in Prime Minister William Gladstone running government with only the second largest party.

Normanton campaign
The two candidates for the election in Normanton were the incumbent Benjamin Pickard, and Lieutenant-Colonel Charlesworth, who retired his seat as a Wakefield MP to make an attempt at Normanton's seat.

Conservative
Charlesworth assembled an open-air meeting which drew 12-15,000 men. His two main issues he was to fight for was the repeal of the Purchase of Land Act 1885, and the rejection of any future Irish Home Rule bills. Charlesworth argued that if Ireland were to achieve home rule it would starve Britain of much needed income, and people in Britain would have to go through a tax increase. The Land Purchase Act was designed to allow people in Ireland to buy their accommodation from their landlord through government loans. Charlesworth argued that an Irish Parliament would prevent those loans being repaid. Further, he argued that new landlords would spend their money in Britain and starve Ireland of income to fund its industry, which he believed would result in migration in such a scale local people would be rendered jobless. In his final statements he quoted an Irish Catholic priest who was critical of the British Empire and pro-Home Rule in an effort to suggest patriotic voters perceive the Irish peasantry as rebels trying to claim "free land". Though it is noted Charlesworth was jeered heavily during the meeting, he was confident that a large number of Liberal voters in the last election were swayed to the Conservatives thanks to his speech.