Jabez Balfour as Liberal candidate in Croydon at the general election but lost to the Conservatives. He also stood unsuccessfully for the Liberals at Walworth in 1886. In 1880 he was appointed chairman of the Northampton Street Tramways. Together with City financiers Leopold Salomons and Sir John Pender, Balfour founded the investment underwriting firm the "Trustees, Executors and Securities Insurance Corporation, Limited" in December 1887. In 1892, he was at the centre of a scandal over the failure of a series of companies which he set up and controlled, starting with the London and General Bank and culminating in the Liberator Building
Howard Johnson (politician) Howard Johnson (politician) Howard Sydney Johnson (25 December 1910 – 13 September 2000) was a British solicitor and building society director who became an unorthodox Conservative Party Member of Parliament. Johnson, who considered himself a radical, espoused many positions which put him outside the mainstream including opposition to fox hunting and support for unilateral nuclear disarmament. After leaving Parliament he passed through the Liberal Party and eventually into supporting the Labour Party. Johnson was a native of Brighton, and was born into a Conservative family. His mother's family had a long connection with Brighton council, having been councillors and aldermen.