Dale British By-Elections 1769-2025

The 88 By-Election Campaigns That Shaped Our Politics
1. Auflage 2025
ISBN: 978-1-83736-012-3
Verlag: Biteback Publishing
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 725 Seiten

A parliamentary by-election happens when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant between general elections, whether because the sitting MP dies, resigns, goes bankrupt, is convicted of a crime or is subject to a recall petition. By-elections can often appear to break the mould of British politics, signify the seemingly terminal decline of a particular political party or indicate the end of a premiership. Some take on iconic status or attract celebrity candidates and are remembered several decades after they take place. Others quickly disappear into the depths of our memories. As these pages will testify, however, there's rarely a dull contest. In this latest anthology, Iain Dale picks the most consequential by-elections of the modern era and presents a series of thoroughly researched and absorbing essays by some of our finest political writers, including Sir Vernon Bogdanor, Sir John Curtice, Simon Heffer, Julia Langdon, Lord Lexden, Andrew Marr, Tim Shipman and many others. This remarkable book uncovers unique stories of political tragedy, triumph, success and failure, set against the backdrop of some of the most dramatic moments in British parliamentary history.

Iain Dale is an award-winning broadcaster with LBC Radio and presents their evening show. He co-presents the Where Politics Meets History podcast with Dr Tessa Dunlop. Iain has written or edited more than sixty books, including British General Election Campaigns 1830-2019, Margaret Thatcher, The Dictators, The Taoiseach, Kings and Queens, The Presidents, The Prime Ministers, On This Day in Politics and Why Can't We All Just Get Along. Signed copies of all his books can be ordered from www.politicos.co.uk. He is on all social media platforms @iaindale. He lives in Tunbridge Wells.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Dale, Iain

Leseproben

Preface

IAIN DALE

Parliamentary by-elections are far from a unique British institution, yet there is something unique about the way we conduct them in this country. They often seem to take on a far greater political significance than, in retrospect, they really have. At the time, they can appear to break the mould of British politics, signify the seemingly terminal decline of a particular political party or signal the end of a premiership. Some by-elections take on iconic status and are remembered several decades after they take place. Others quickly disappear into the depths of our memories, rarely to be thought about ever again.

The one thing they all have in common is they each tell a story. Whether they occur because of the death of the sitting Member of Parliament, the corruption of an MP or simply the fact that the MP has had enough, there’s always a human tale to tell.

By-elections often attract celebrity candidates and therefore the media spotlight falls on a constituency that has maybe never hit the headlines before.

There’s rarely a dull by-election, as these pages will testify to.

When I published British General Election Campaigns 1830–2019, a book on famous by-elections seemed the obvious follow-up. But were there really enough to warrant it? I sat down to compile a list off the top of my head and got to fifty without any trouble at all. In the end, after consulting experts and the general reader through social media, I came up with a list of 130, which I then had to whittle down. When I announced the list of seventy-five, there were howls of outrage that I hadn’t included x or y by-election, which is why the number I eventually settled on was a rather awkward eighty-eight. I suppose I could have just picked by-elections from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but then we would have missed out the fascinating tales from by-elections going back to the eighteenth century. So here we are. Eighty-eight by-elections, and eighty-eight unique stories of political tragedy, triumph, success and failure.

By-elections have taken place for centuries, but few took on great significance until the Great Reform Act of 1832, which abolished rotten boroughs and constituencies which had only a dozen voters. Since then, the electoral franchise has grown, in stages, to include every adult over the age of eighteen, with a further extension to sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds under discussion.

Some by-elections are more interesting than others. If a challenger party is doing well in the polls, for almost whatever reason, the media will be far more interested than if it is just a contest between the established parties. Sometimes parties decide not to field a candidate in a particular by-election and urge their supporters to vote for another one. Occasionally, as in Clacton in 2014, an MP will cross the floor and join another party and seek the endorsement of their voters in a by-election.

In wartime, it is usual for by-elections to be uncontested, so if an MP dies, the party he or she belongs to stands a new candidate unopposed. This, of course, doesn’t prevent minor parties from standing. The same thing can, but doesn’t always, happen after a terror attack. In 1990, after Ian Gow was murdered by an IRA car bomb, the Liberal Democrats overturned a massive majority to win the seat of Eastbourne. Yet when Jo Cox and Sir David Amess were murdered, the main parties did not contest the ensuing by-election, although in each there was a plethora of minor candidates.

Up until 1926, by-elections were held more frequently because all ministers, upon being appointed to office, had to get the endorsement of their electorates.

You will find some fascinating facts in the statistics section. The swing from one party to another is perhaps the most important statistic to emerge from any by-election. Not once has there ever been a swing of more than 50 per cent. Only four times since 1945 has there been a swing of more than 40 per cent. In 2024, George Galloway won Rochdale from Labour for the Workers Party with a swing of 41.8 per cent. In 1973, sitting Labour MP Dick Taverne resigned his Lincoln seat and then won it back under the Democratic Labour banner with a 43 per cent swing. The second highest swing occurred in 2014 in Clacton when, as mentioned, Douglas Carswell defected from the Conservatives to UKIP and retained it with a 44.1 per cent swing. The biggest by-election swing of all time occurred in perhaps one of the most notorious by-elections ever, in Bermondsey in 1983, when the Liberals, in the shape of Simon Hughes, took the seat from Labour with a swing of 44.2 per cent.

It is, of course, the norm for a governing party to suffer in by-elections. Invariably, they will be suffering mid-term popularity blues. In only ten by-elections since the Second World War has there been a swing in favour of the governing party, the largest being in Hartlepool in 2019 when there was a 16 per cent swing from Labour to Conservative.

There is a lot of talk about safe seats and so-called ‘impregnable majorities’. Nowadays, there is no such thing. If you look at the list of the biggest majorities overturned in a by-election since 1945, the top three have occurred in the past ten years. In 2016, Lib Dem Sarah Olney overturned the Conservative Zac Goldsmith’s 23,015 majority by 1,672 votes. She lost the seat at the 2017 general election, then won it back in 2019. The second biggest majority to fall to the Lib Dems was in Tiverton & Honiton. Richard Foord vanquished a Tory majority of 24,230 and won with a majority of 6,144. But the biggest overall majority to be eliminated was 24,664 – achieved by Nadine Dorries in Mid Bedfordshire in the 2019 general election. She resigned her seat in solidarity with Boris Johnson and it was lost to Labour’s Alistair Strathern in the by-election, where he triumphed with a majority of 1,192.

Small majorities in by-elections are far from the norm. Only Alan Beith, in Berwick-upon-Tweed in 1973 for the Liberals, and Tory Fred Silvester in Walthamstow West in 1967 have won with double-figure majorities – fifty-seven and sixty-two, respectively. The smallest majority was achieved by Reform UK’s Sarah Pochin in Runcorn on 1 May 2025. In addition, only forty-four by-elections since 1945 have resulted in a three-figure majority – i.e. less than 1,000.

Turnout in by-elections is another subject which obsesses electoral geeks. Normally, turnout is far lower than in general elections, although there are exceptions to this. The biggest came in 1935, when Malcolm MacDonald retained Ross & Cromarty for National Labour with a 14 per cent swing. On reflection, this by-election should have been included in this book. It was also notable for Randolph Churchill coming within a whisker of losing his deposit. The second biggest increase in turnout came in Torrington in 1958 when the Liberals gained their first seat in a by-election since 1929. Mark Bonham Carter prevailed with a tiny majority of 219. Turnout increased by 11.4 per cent to 80.6 per cent.

Low turnouts occur when the voters don’t see the need for a by-election. Manchester Central gets the medal for the lowest turnout in a by-election, when only 18.2 per cent of the voters could be bothered to go to the ballot box in 2012. Since 1945, there have been seventeen by-elections with a turnout of under 30 per cent. Interestingly, of these seventeen, twelve have taken place since 2000.

Of course, by-elections represent a brilliant opportunity for fringe candidates or independents to show their wares. This means that there are usually more candidates in by-elections than in general elections. Most of them will not retain their deposits, but they don’t care. The most candidates to stand in a by-election was twenty-six, in 2008 at the Haltemprice & Howden by-election, which David Davis had caused by resigning his seat over the issue of civil liberties. In second place was Newbury in 1993, where nineteen candidates stood. David Rendel toppled the Conservatives.

Unless you are a serial candidate like William (Bill) Boaks or Screaming Lord Sutch from the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, there are very few people who contest more than one by-election. Among well-known politicians, Tony Benn holds the record for most fought – since 1945 – with four, in Bristol South East in 1950, 1961 and 1963 and Chesterfield in 1984. Roy Jenkins and Betty Boothroyd each fought three by-elections. Prior to that, Winston Churchill had fought five by-elections – Oldham in 1899, Manchester North West in 1908, Dundee in 1908, Dundee in 1917 and Westminster Abbey in 1924. The former and latter contests both feature in this book. Arthur Henderson not only fought five by-elections in Barnard Castle, Widnes, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Burnley and Clay Cross – he was victorious in all of them.

Bill Boaks fought nineteen by-elections in various guises, most commonly railing against the Common Market. Of the nineteen, Beaconsfield in 1982, which also saw Tony Blair fighting as the Labour candidate, scored his highest vote – all of ninety-nine! He was a mere amateur compared to Screaming Lord Sutch, who fought thirty-four by-elections between 1963 and 1997. He achieved his best result in Rotherham in 1994, gaining 1,114 votes in the contest won by...