 The Conservative Party candidate was Henry Grattan-Doyle, whose selection split the local Conservative Association.A group broke away to form the Newcastle North (1940) Conservative Association, and they fielded Sir Cuthbert Headlam as an "Independent Conservative" candidate.Headlam had been MP for Barnard Castle from 1924 to 1929 and from 1931 to 1935, and had held several junior ministerial posts.