The fact that Leo Chiozza Money was from Genoa and Strauss was Jewish led to the establishment of a committee of local electors led by Col. Stewart and Alfred Darch who declared "the present position of the voters in the division has been rendered intolerable by the action of the Liberal and Conservative Associations, each having made the grievous mistake of failing to nominate an Englishman as a candidate for the constituency". With a general election imminent in December 1905, they signed a requisition to Sir Henry Burdett to stand as an Independent Unionist candidate. Burdett accepted, being careful to say that he did not object to Strauss on the grounds of being a Jew but merely as a foreigner. Another point of difference was that Strauss was a supporter of Tariff Reform while Burdett was a supporter of Free Trade.