 Whiteley had held the seat since a by-election in 1937.The Conservative Party nominated as its candidate, Lionel Berry, the deputy chairman of Kemsley Newspapers Ltd (owner of "The Sunday Times" and the "Daily Record"), and eldest son of the company's proprietor, Viscount Kemsley.In accordance with an electoral truce between the parties in the wartime coalition government, neither the Liberal nor Labour parties nominated a candidate.