1968 Bassetlaw by-election

Last updated

The Bassetlaw by-election, 1968 was a parliamentary by-election for the constituency of Bassetlaw held on 31 October 1968. It was caused by the death of the former Labour Member of Parliament, Fred Bellenger.

The Labour candidate, Joe Ashton, was a Sheffield city councillor. His Conservative opponent was Jim Lester, a Nottingham businessman. [1] The Liberal party decided against contesting the seat for financial reasons. [2] There was one independent, Tom Lynch of the National Union of Small Shopkeepers, who campaigned for a coalition of all the parties and the end of the fivepenny post. [3] He fell five times short of retaining his deposit (only doubly short since 1985).

Early reports suggested a low turnout was likely, due to voter disenchantment with the major parties, and Labour had some reason to fear its supporters staying away. Pit closures were an important issue in a seat with a large mining sector vote. Ashton argued that the Labour government's approach, which included redundancy payments to miners over the age of 55, was better than the approach of the Conservatives when they were in power. [3] The other major issues were reported as taxes, prices, employment and education. Bellenger had had a majority at the last general election of 10,428. The seat would require a swing of 11.6 per cent at a time when opinion polls put the Conservatives 7.5 per cent ahead nationally. [1] Conservatives had lately achieved comparable swings to 11.6% in by-elections in Nelson and Colne and Oldham West as economic conditions made the government very unpopular. [3]

On the day, Labour retained the seat but the majority was slashed to 740 votes. Commentators suggested that although this was a bad result for Labour ("If Labour's grip on Bassetlaw, a bedrock citadel of theirs for 44 years, is reduced to a perilous hanging-on by the fingernails, they cannot fail to be unnerved") they could take hope from the fact that there was a better swing and result compared to earlier, more ominous, by-elections. [4]

Bassetlaw by-election, 1968 [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Joe Ashton 21,39449.64-11.99
Conservative Jim Lester 20,65447.92+9.55
Independent Tom Lynch1,0532.44New
Majority7401.72-21.55
Turnout 43,10168.0-5.3
Labour hold Swing

Related Research Articles

1970 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970. It resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, which defeated the governing Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The Liberal Party, under its new leader Jeremy Thorpe, lost half its seats. The Conservatives, including the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), secured a majority of 30 seats. This general election was the first in which people could vote from the age of 18, after passage of the Representation of the People Act the previous year, and the first UK election where party, and not just candidate names were allowed to be put on the ballots.

October 1974 United Kingdom general election General election in the United Kingdom

The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the British House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year, the first year that two general elections were held in the same year since 1910, and the first time that two general elections were held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart. The election resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson winning the narrowest majority recorded, 3 seats. This enabled the remainder of the Labour government, 1974–1979 to take place, which saw a gradual loss of its majority.

1964 United Kingdom general election 1964 United Kingdom general election

The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on 15 October 1964, five years after the previous election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party, first led by Winston Churchill, had regained power. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by the incumbent Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition. Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894.

Joseph William Ashton was a British Labour Party politician who was known for his defence of the rights of Labour Members of Parliament (MPs) against the demands of the left wing of the party to subject them to mandatory reselection. He took his seat in a by-election, winning with a majority of just 1.72%; in his last election before retiring, he won it by a majority of 36.4%.

Bassetlaw District Northernmost district of Nottinghamshire, England

Bassetlaw is a local government district in Nottinghamshire, England. The district has four towns: Worksop, Tuxford, Harworth Bircotes and Retford. It is bounded to the north by the Metropolitan Boroughs of Doncaster and Rotherham, the east by West Lindsey, the west by both the Borough of Chesterfield and North East Derbyshire and the south by Mansfield District and Newark and Sherwood. The district is along with Bolsover District, North East Derbyshire and Borough of Chesterfield is a non-constituent member of the Sheffield City Region.

Bassetlaw (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1885 onwards

Bassetlaw is a parliamentary constituency in Nottinghamshire, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since the 2019 general election by Brendan Clarke-Smith, a Conservative. Before that election, the seat had been part of the so-called "red wall", being held by the Labour Party since 1929.

Mansfield (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1885 onwards

Mansfield is a constituency created in 1885 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Ben Bradley of the Conservative Party, who gained the seat at the 2017 general election, from the Labour Party. This is the first time the seat has been represented by a Conservative since its creation in 1885.

2005 United Kingdom general election General election held in the United Kingdom

The 2005 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 5 May 2005, to elect 646 members to the House of Commons. The Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, won its third consecutive victory, with Blair becoming the second Labour leader after Harold Wilson to form three majority governments. However, its majority fell to 66 seats compared to the 167-seat majority it had won four years before. This was the first time the Labour Party had won a third consecutive election, and remains the party's most recent general election victory.

2010 United Kingdom general election Election of members to the House of Commons in 2010

The 2010 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 6 May 2010, with 45,597,461 registered voters entitled to vote to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system.

Frederick Bellenger British politician

Captain Frederick John Bellenger was a British surveyor, soldier and politician.

Sir James Theodore Lester was a British Conservative Party politician.

Welsh Labour is the branch of the United Kingdom Labour Party in Wales and the largest party in modern Welsh politics. Welsh Labour and its forebears won a plurality of the of the Welsh vote at every UK general election since 1922, Senedd election since 1999, and European Parliament election in 1979–2004 and 2014. Welsh Labour holds 22 of the 40 Welsh seats in the UK Parliament, 30 of the 60 seats in the Welsh Senedd and 576 of the 1,264 councillors in principal local authorities, including overall control of 10 of the 22.

The Wansbeck by-election, 1918 was a parliamentary by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Wansbeck in Northumberland on 28 May 1918.

This is the results breakdown of the 2010 United Kingdom general election.

The 1890 Bassetlaw by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire on 15 December 1890.

A landslide victory is an election result in which the victorious candidate or party wins by an overwhelming margin. The term became popular in the 1800s to describe a victory in which the opposition is "buried", similar to the way in which a geological landslide buries whatever is in its path. What constitutes a landslide varies by the type of electoral system. Even within an electoral system, there is no consensus on what sized margin makes for a landslide.

2015 United Kingdom general election Election of members to the House of Commons in 2015

The 2015 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 to elect 650 members to the House of Commons. It was the first and, as of 2022, the only general election held at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. Local elections took place in most areas on the same day.

2015 United Kingdom general election in England

The 2015 United Kingdom general election in England was held on Thursday, 7 May 2015 for 533 English seats to the House of Commons. The Conservatives won a majority of seats in England for the second time since 1992.

2019 Bassetlaw District Council election

The 2019 Bassetlaw District Council election took place on 2 May 2019 to elect all 48 members of Bassetlaw District Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections.

2021 Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council election

The 2021 Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council election took place on 6 May 2021 to elect members of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council in England. This was on the same day as other local elections. One-third of the seats were up for election.

References

  1. 1 2 Chartres, John (30 October 1968). "Bassetlaw crucial pointer for major parties". The Times.
  2. "Liberal new look group named". The Times. 18 July 1968.
  3. 1 2 3 Chartres, John (23 October 1968). "Miners key to Bassetlaw". The Times.
  4. David Wood, "Labour majority cut to 740 at Bassetlaw", The Times, 1 November 1968.
  5. "1968 By Election Results". British Elections Ephemera Archive. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2015-08-21.