Overview

The British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 was caused by the resignation of Bruce Douglas-Mann

Bruce Douglas-Mann

Bruce Leslie Home Douglas-Mann was a British politician.Bruce Douglas-Mann was born at Bexhill, Sussex, the son of a solicitor, Leslie John Douglas-Mann, MC....

, the Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Mitcham and Morden. Douglas-Mann had retained the seat for the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 since its creation for the February 1974 general election

United Kingdom general election, February 1974

The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

. The constituency had been created from parts of Merton and Morden

Merton and Morden (UK Parliament constituency)

Merton and Morden was a parliamentary constituency in what was then the Merton and Morden Urban District, but is now part of the London Borough of Merton...

 and Mitcham

Mitcham (UK Parliament constituency)

Mitcham was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Mitcham suburb of South London. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post system....

, both of which had usually generally returned Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 MPs. At the 1979 UK general election, Douglas-Mann had held the seat with a majority of only 618 votes over the Conservatives.

Douglas-Mann decided in early 1982 to join the recently formed Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

 (SDP); several other MPs had already joined the party. Although there was no requirement to do so, he decided to resign his seat and stand in the resulting by-election in order to gain a mandate for his change of allegiance.

With a Conservative government in power, their share of the vote might have been expected to decline, but with the Falklands War

Falklands War

The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...

 underway, their approval ratings were high, and the party hoped to make a decent showing. The party stood Angela Rumbold

Angela Rumbold

Dame Angela Claire Rosemary Rumbold, DBE was a British Conservative Party Member of Parliament until 1997.- Education :...

, a councillor in Kingston-upon-Thames.

The Labour Party was suffering from defections to the SDP, and thought it unlikely that they would hold the seat. They stood David Nicholas.

The Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 had agreed an electoral pact with the SDP the previous autumn, and as a result, did not stand a candidate against Douglas-Mann. However, Edward Larkin stood as an independent Liberal candidate.

Several other candidates stood. The far right

Far right

Far-right, extreme right, hard right, radical right, and ultra-right are terms used to discuss the qualitative or quantitative position a group or person occupies within right-wing politics. Far-right politics may involve anti-immigration and anti-integration stances towards groups that are...

 British National Front

British National Front

The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....

 stood Joseph Pearce

Joseph Pearce

Joseph Pearce is an English-born writer, and Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of...

. Veteran by-election candidate Bill Boaks

Bill Boaks

Lieutenant Commander William George Boaks DSC was a British Royal Navy officer who became an eccentric political campaigner for road safety. He died at the age of 81 as a result of a road traffic accident...

 stood as a "Democratic Monarchist". Roy Sawh, a long-term campaigner for equal rights

Civil rights

Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...

, stood as the "Ethnic Minority Candidate". Jitendra Bardwaj, who had been convicted of assaulting a police officer outside the House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

, stood as "COPS", in an attempt to highlight what he held was his unjust treatment, and Christopher Farnsworth stood as a "Computer Democrat".

Result

While the Conservative vote declined slightly, Rumbold was able to achieve an easy victory, with the 1979 Labour vote split fairly evenly between Douglas-Mann and Nicholas. With national attention focussed on the unpredictable result, none of the independent candidates were able to make an impact, and the National Front vote declined from the previous election.

Merton, Mitcham and Morden was the first seat gained in a by-election by an incumbent government since the Bristol South-East by-election, 1961 was awarded to the Conservatives by an Election Court

Election court

An Election Court is, in United Kingdom election law, a special court convened to hear a petition against the result of a local government or Parliamentary election. The court is created to hear the individual case, and ceases to exist when it has made its decision.- Statutory basis :Election...

, and the first gained with the largest vote since the Brighouse and Spenborough by-election, 1960

Brighouse and Spenborough by-election, 1960

A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough on 17th March 1960. The seat became vacant following the death on 23 November 1959 of the Labour Party Member of Parliament Lewis John Edwards, who had held the seat since a by-election in 1950, but...

. It was the last seat gained by the Conservatives at a by-election until the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008

Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008

The Crewe and Nantwich by-election, 2008 was a parliamentary by-election held on 22 May 2008, for the British House of Commons constituency of Crewe and Nantwich, in Cheshire, England...

.

The by-election was the first to see the incumbent party drop to third place since the Rochdale by-election, 1958

Rochdale by-election, 1958

The Rochdale by-election of 13 February 1958 was a by-election for the constituency of Rochdale, in Lancashire, England, in the House of Commons...

, a situation which next occurred at the Brecon and Radnor by-election, 1985

Brecon and Radnor by-election, 1985

The Brecon and Radnor by-election, 1985 was a parliamentary by-election held on 4 July 1985 for the British House of Commons constituency of Brecon and Radnor .- Previous MP :The seat had become vacant on 9 May 1985, when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament ,...

.

Rumbold held the seat until the 1997 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1997

The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

, when it was retaken by Labour. Douglas-Mann stood for the seat again in the SDP colours at the 1983 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1983

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

, but was pushed into third place by Nicholas. Pearce later repudiated his views and became a Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

. The election proved to be one of Boaks' last, while Bardwaj stood in several further by-elections.