1976 Coventry North West by-election

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1976 Coventry North West by-election
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  Oct. 1974 4 March 1976 1979  

Constituency of Coventry North West
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Official portrait of Mr Geoffrey Robinson (3x4 crop).jpg
Con
Lib
Candidate Geoffrey Robinson Jonathan Guinness Alan Leighton
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Popular vote17,11813,4244,062
Percentage47.72%37.42%11.32%
SwingDecrease2.svg 4.14%Increase2.svg 6.08%Decrease2.svg 4.34%

MP before election

Maurice Edelman
Labour

Elected MP

Geoffrey Robinson
Labour

The Coventry North West by-election , in Coventry on 4 March 1976, was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Edelman. A safe Labour seat, it was won by Geoffrey Robinson, who retained the seat until 2019.

Contents

Party performance

The by-election represented the first outing for the National Party; it had recently split from the National Front and both parties ran candidates in the election. Although both polled poorly, it set a trend for a split far right vote which was replicated in the 1989 Vauxhall by-election and elsewhere.

The Liberal Party vote fell in this by-election, a development that former leader Jo Grimond blamed in part on scandals surrounding incumbent Jeremy Thorpe's homosexuality. Grimond suggested that the result and the allegations meant that Thorpe "must think of stepping down". [1] Thorpe stood down as Liberal leader two months later.

Results

Coventry North West, 1976 [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Geoffrey Robinson 17,11847.72−4.14
Conservative Jonathan Guinness 13,42437.42+6.08
Liberal Alan Leighton4,06211.32−4.34
National Front Andrew Fountaine 9862.75New
National Party John Kingsley Read 2080.60New
More Prosperous Britain Thomas Keen400.11New
Logic PartyWilliam Dunmore330.09New
Majority3,69410.30
Turnout 35,871
Labour hold Swing

References

  1. Michael McManus, Jo Grimond: Towards the Sound of Gunfire, Edinburgh, 2001, p. 325
  2. "1976 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2015.