 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituency of Chester-le-Street | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 71.4% ( 2.3%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1973 Chester-le-Street by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Chester-le-Street on 1 March 1973.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituency of Chester-le-Street | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 71.4% (2.3%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The 1973 Chester-le-Street by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Chester-le-Street on 1 March 1973.
The by-election had been caused by the death aged 60 years on 28 October 1972 of the sitting Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Norman Pentland. Pentland had held Chester-le-Street since himself winning a by-election there on 27 September 1956.
The Labour Party chose Giles Radice, the then Head of the Research Department of the General and Municipal Workers Union as their candidate. The Conservatives selected merchant banker Neil Balfour and the Liberals adopted George Suggett, an antique dealer from Newbury in Berkshire but who had been born in the constituency and who was the son of a Durham miner. [1] The Liberals had not contested any Parliamentary election in Chester-le-Street since the 1929 general election. [2] Suggett himself had previously stood for the Newbury seat in 1945 as a member of the Common Wealth Party.
The contest in Chester-le-Street at the 1970 general election had been a straight fight between Labour and Conservative parties at which Norman Pentland had a healthy majority of 20,331 votes. [3]
By any measure Chester-le-Street was a very safe Labour seat and the party had held it for nearly 70 years. [4] At a time of Conservative government which was proving difficult for Prime Minister Edward Heath, damaged politically as he was by a series of economic and social problems [5] there was no expectation of a serious challenge for Tory candidate Neil Balfour.
The by-election came at a better time for the Liberal Party. The Liberals had won two by-elections at the end of 1972; the first at Rochdale had been won from Labour by Cyril Smith, the second at Sutton and Cheam had been captured from the Conservatives. Cook & Ramsden characterise 1972-73 as a time of Liberal surge. [6] Further by-election success would follow for the Liberals during the 1970-1974 Parliament. Further difficulties would also follow for Labour with the by-election at Lincoln which was held on the same day as Chester-le-Street. This resulted in the return to Parliament of Dick Taverne standing for election as Democratic Labour candidate, having fallen out with his local Constituency Labour Party. The problems Labour experienced in Lincoln, particularly in relation to the pro-European views of people like Taverne and Roy Jenkins, have been cited as an early example of the kind of problems which led ultimately to the split in the Labour Party in 1981 and the formation of the Social Democratic Party. [7] [8] In July 1974 similar trouble emerged for Labour with the defection to the Liberals of Christopher Mayhew, Labour MP for Woolwich East. [9]
Labour fought on the poor record of the Conservative government. The Tories highlighted improvements in pensions and government investment in regional development in the North East of England. The Liberals were starting from scratch in their campaign and attacked Labour for its complacency in an area which it was alleged they took their support for granted and the Conservatives on their performance on questions such as poverty and unemployment. [10]
An issue which surfaced during the campaign and which caused a great deal of bitterness was the question of how Labour candidate Giles Radice had been selected. The New Statesman magazine published an article on 23 February 1973, written by journalist Richard West, alleging that officials of the General and Municipal Workers Union had systematically gained control of the Chester-le-Street Constituency Labour Party and had in effect gerrymandered their representation in the division to obtain more votes than affiliated branches of other trade unions. In his article West claimed that the union's tactics had proved unpopular and divisive inside the local Labour party with 'loyal party workers' and some groups, such as the women's section, being particularly disgruntled. [11]
In the aftermath of this controversy, Labour turned its attack on the campaign of the Liberal candidate, accusing George Suggett of trying to smear Giles Radice personally and of trying to capitalise unfairly on the nomination issue. At the declaration of the votes, Radice announced that whereas the Conservatives had conducted a clean and honest campaign, he was not going to comment on the approach of his other opponent. [12] As Suggett tried to make his speech after the declaration he was constantly heckled and jeered by the Labour supporters, who were later silent for the speech of Neil Balfour. Suggett denied he had smeared Radice and invited the press to review his election literature and campaign speeches for any evidence of misconduct. He said the real reason was so angry was that the Liberals had "broken the weighbridge on which the Labour majority in Chester-le-Street used to be weighed". [13] Cyril Smith, who had campaigned for Suggett in the by-election, recalled later that he deliberately, if obliquely, had raised the issue of political corruption by mentioning in a speech at the opening of the campaign the T. Dan Smith affair and how it was uncovering new instances of corruption amongst Labour councillors in the North East, including one from Chester-le-Street who later went to prison. As far as the Liberal Party was concerned, commented Smith, this was legitimate political meat and needed no apology. [14]
Radice held the seat for Labour with a majority of 7,066 over Suggett, having taken 53% of the poll. Balfour came third, losing his deposit. Radice went on to represent Chester-le-Street in the Labour interest until the seat was abolished in 1983. He was then selected as Labour candidate for North Durham the successor seat which included large parts of the old Chester-le-Street constituency, until he stood down from Parliament at the 2001 general election. Neil Balfour fought Chester-le-Street again at the February 1974 general election again coming third behind the Liberals. [15] Perhaps bruised by the attacks upon him, Suggett does not appear to have been a candidate at any further Parliamentary elections but played an active but more backroom role in Newbury. [16]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Giles Radice | 25,874 | 53.06 | −18.54 | |
| Liberal | George Booth Suggett | 18,808 | 38.57 | New | |
| Conservative | Neil Balfour | 4,092 | 8.39 | −20.01 | |
| Majority | 7,066 | 14.49 | −28.71 | ||
| Turnout | 48,768 | 71.4 | −2.3 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
The 1906 United Kingdom general election was held from 12 January to 8 February 1906. The Liberals, led by Prime Minister Henry Campbell-Bannerman, won a landslide majority at the election. The Conservatives led by Arthur Balfour, who had been in government until the month before the election, lost more than half their seats, including party leader Balfour's own seat in Manchester East, leaving the party with its fewest recorded seats ever in history until 2024. The election saw a 5.4% swing from the Conservative Party to the Liberal Party, the largest-ever seen at the time. This has resulted in the 1906 general election being dubbed the "Liberal landslide", and is now ranked alongside the 1924, 1931, 1945, 1983, 1997, 2001, and 2024 general elections as one of the largest landslide election victories.
Democratic Labour was a minor political party operating in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. It was formed by the Labour MP Dick Taverne when his Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in the Lincoln constituency deselected him as its candidate at the next general election. He had fallen out with it over Britain's proposed membership of the European Communities, which he supported but it did not.
Dick Taverne, Baron Taverne, is a British politician and life peer who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Lincoln from 1962 to 1974. A member of the Liberal Democrats, he was a Labour MP until his deselection in 1972, following which he resigned his seat and won the subsequent by-election in 1973 as a Democratic Labour candidate.
The 1922 Newport by-election was by-election held in the parliamentary constituency of Newport in Wales on 18 October 1922. The by-election attracted especial attention, both at the time and since, as it was seen as a crucial electoral test of the viability of the Lloyd George Coalition Government, formed of followers of David Lloyd George with the Conservative Party, the latter of which contained an increasing number of members who wished to leave the coalition and regain the party's independence.
Neil Roxburgh Balfour is a British merchant banker, financier and politician. He was the member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire North from 1979 to 1983.
The 1943 Darwen by-election was a by-election held on 15 December 1943 for the British House of Commons constituency of Darwen in Lancashire.
The 1972 Rochdale by-election, was a parliamentary by-election held on 26 October 1972 for the House of Commons constituency of Rochdale.
The 1973 Lincoln by-election of 1 March 1973 saw the re-election of Dick Taverne as Member of Parliament for Lincoln as a Democratic Labour representative, after Taverne's pro-Common Market views saw him repudiated by the Lincoln Constituency Labour Party. The by-election led to considerable speculation, stoked by Taverne, about the formation of a new centre party, but Taverne was unable to make his victory last.
The 1967 West Derbyshire by-election for the British House of Commons took place on 23 November 1967. It was caused by the resignation of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Aidan Crawley to become Chairman of London Weekend Television where he remained until 1973. The seat was retained for the Conservatives by James Scott-Hopkins with a majority of 10,623 over the Liberal candidate Aza Pinney. Labour's Robin Corbett came third with 5,284 and an Independent, Robert Goodall, was fourth with 1,496 votes - losing his deposit.
The 1924 Westminster Abbey by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 19 March 1924 for the British House of Commons constituency of Westminster Abbey in London. It was notable for the challenge of Winston Churchill to the party system.
The 1973 Dundee East by-election, in Scotland, was held on 1 March 1973. It was one of three UK parliamentary by-elections held on that day. It was caused by the appointment of George Thomson as a European commissioner. George Machin retained the seat for Labour, but only narrowly. There was a strong showing by the Scottish National Party, which prefigured their serious breakthrough at the Govan by-election later in the year, and the two general elections of 1974.
The 1954 Inverness by-election was a by-election held on 21 December 1954 for the British House of Commons constituency of Inverness.
The 1956 Chester-le-Street by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Chester-le-Street on 27 September 1956.
The 1939 Brecon and Radnorshire by-election, was a parliamentary by-election held on 1 August 1939 for the British House of Commons constituency of Brecon and Radnorshire, in South Wales.
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 industrial relations. The SDP officially advocated social democracy, and unofficially for social liberalism as well.
The 1942 Rugby by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Rugby on 29 April 1942.
The 1943 Eddisbury by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Eddisbury on 7 April 1943.
The 1943 Daventry by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Daventry, Northamptonshire, on 20 April 1943.
The 1944 Skipton by-election was a parliamentary by-election for the British House of Commons constituency of Skipton, Yorkshire held on 7 January 1944.
Lincolnshire County Council is a non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands of England. It was formed when the Local Government Act 1972 merged the counties of Holland, Kesteven and Lindsey, and held its first election on 12 April 1973.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)