1982 Birmingham Northfield by-election

Last updated
1982 Birmingham Northfield by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1979 28 October 1982 1983  

Constituency of Birmingham Northfield
Turnout55.0%
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Official portrait of John Spellar crop 2.jpg Official portrait of Sir Roger Gale (3x4 crop).jpg
Lib
Candidate John Spellar Roger Gale Stephen Ridley
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Popular vote15,90415,61511,453
Percentage36.3%35.6%26.1%
SwingDecrease2.svg 8.8%Decrease2.svg 9.8%Increase2.svg 18.0%

MP before election

Jocelyn Cadbury
Conservative

Elected MP

John Spellar
Labour

The Birmingham, Northfield by-election of 28 October 1982 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Jocelyn Cadbury on 31 July 1982. The seat was gained by the Labour Party in a defeat for Margaret Thatcher's government, ironically just after opinion polls showed an upswing in Conservative support following the victorious Falklands War campaign months earlier. The Conservatives regained the seat at the 1983 general election.

Contents

Candidates

Results

Birmingham, Northfield by-election, 1982 [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Spellar 15,90436.38.8
Conservative Roger Gale 15,61535.69.8
Liberal Stephen Ridley11,45326.1+18.0
National Front Ian Anderson 4110.9-0.2
Communist Peter Sheppard3490.8N/A
People's Progressive PartyRonald Taylor630.2N/A
Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident Bill Boaks 600.1N/A
Majority2890.7
Turnout 43,85555.0
Labour gain from Conservative Swing -0.51

Aftermath

The result gave the Labour Party its first gain in a by-election in Britain since 1971. Yet while Labour had regained the seat which it had lost in 1979, the Conservatives were reported to be delighted at only narrowly losing given that the seat had been their third most vulnerable based on the 1979 results. Norman Tebbit, then a Conservative Cabinet minister, noted his party had come "within an ace of holding one of our most marginal constituencies" and argued that the results in Northfield and the by-election held on the same day for the Peckham constituency showed that the intervention of the Alliance allowed Labour to win. [4] Writing in The Glasgow Herald , political journalist Geoffrey Parkhouse argued that winning Northfield saved Labour leader Michael Foot "from disaster", but the closeness of the result meant it was a "desperate victory" for him. He also argued that the results showed that Margaret Thatcher's government was on course to win the next election, but that the Alliance's potential to take votes from the Conservatives could yet prevent them from gaining an overall majority. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1979 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the House of Commons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1983 United Kingdom general election</span> British 1983 election

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats and the first of two consecutive landslide victories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir Anthony Meyer, 3rd Baronet</span> British politician (1920–2004)

Sir Anthony John Charles Meyer, 3rd Baronet was a British soldier, diplomat, and Conservative and later Liberal Democrat politician, best known for standing against Margaret Thatcher for the party leadership in 1989. In spite of his staunch conservative views on economic policy, his passionate support of increased British integration into the European Union led to him becoming increasingly marginalised in Thatcher's Conservative Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Birmingham Northfield (UK Parliament constituency)</span> UK Parliament constituency in England since 1950

Birmingham Northfield is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Gary Sambrook, a Conservative. It represents the southernmost part of the city of Birmingham.

The 1989 Conservative Party leadership election took place on 5 December 1989. The incumbent Margaret Thatcher was opposed by the little-known 69-year-old backbencher MP Sir Anthony Meyer. It was the Conservative Party's first leadership election for nearly 15 years, when Thatcher had taken the party leadership.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tam Galbraith</span> Scottish politician

Sir Thomas Galloway Dunlop Galbraith, known as Tam Galbraith, was a Scottish Unionist politician.

The Croydon North West by-election took place on 22 October 1981. It was caused by the death of Conservative Member of Parliament Robert Taylor on 18 June 1981.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1977 Ashfield by-election</span> UK Parliamentary by-election

The 1977 Ashfield by-election was held on 28 April 1977 in the Ashfield constituency in the coal mining area of Nottinghamshire, following the resignation of Labour Member of Parliament David Marquand. Conservative candidate Tim Smith was the narrow winner in what was thought to have been a very safe Labour seat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 Beaconsfield by-election</span>

The 1982 Beaconsfield by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 May 1982 for the British House of Commons constituency of Beaconsfield in Buckinghamshire.

In the United Kingdom, general elections occur at least every five years. About 650 constituencies return a member of Parliament. Prior to 1945, electoral competition in the United Kingdom exhibited features which make meaningful comparisons with modern results difficult. Hence, unless otherwise stated, records are based on results since the 1945 general election, and earlier exceptional results are listed separately.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 Glasgow Hillhead by-election</span>

A Glasgow Hillhead by-election was held on 25 March 1982. The by-election was caused by the death of the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Glasgow Hillhead Tam Galbraith on 2 January 1982.

The 1929 Bishop Auckland by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 7 February 1929 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bishop Auckland in County Durham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1981 Crosby by-election</span> By-election held on 26 November 1981

The 1981 Crosby by-election was a by-election held in England on 26 November 1981 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Crosby on Merseyside. It followed the death of Crosby's MP Sir Graham Page, of the Conservative Party.

The 2008 Glasgow East by-election was a by-election for the UK Parliamentary constituency of Glasgow East which was held on 24 July 2008. The election was triggered when, on 30 June 2008, the sitting MP David Marshall stood down due to ill health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1982 Glasgow Queen's Park by-election</span>

The Glasgow Queen's Park by-election, 1982 was a parliamentary by-election held on 2 December 1982 for the House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Queen's Park.

There was a by-election for the constituency of Rutherglen in the House of Commons on 14 May 1964, not long before the 1964 general election.

The 1939 Batley and Morley by-election was a parliamentary by-election held in the United Kingdom on 9 March 1939 for the House of Commons constituency of Batley and Morley in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1942 Grantham by-election</span>

The 1942 Grantham by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Grantham on 25 March 1942.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social Democratic Party (UK)</span> Political party in the United Kingdom (1981–88)

The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist to centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. The party supported a mixed economy, electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within the industrial sphere. The SDP officially advocated social democracy, but its actual propensity is evaluated as close to social liberalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1987 United Kingdom general election in Scotland</span>

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 11 June 1987 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested.

References

  1. Ridley's election leaflet Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Sheppard's election leaflet Archived 14 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1979-83 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 9 June 2000. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  4. 1 2 Parkhouse, Geoffrey (29 October 1982). "Double Labour victory after two recounts". The Herald. Glasgow. Retrieved 16 February 2019.