 | |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Crosby parliamentary seat | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 57,297 (69.3%) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
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 Crosby by-election took place against an almost unprecedented backdrop of division and disunity within both the Conservative and Labour parties, combined with social unrest and economic recession in the United Kingdom as a whole.
The opposition Labour Party was riven by factionalism and divided over entryism – in particular, that of the Militant tendency. It expounded left-wing policies, with perceived weak leadership provided by Michael Foot, who was routinely ridiculed by the national press.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had recently sacked or neutralised the remaining allies of Edward Heath, the previous more moderate Conservative leader, and the country was being subjected to the full rigours of monetarism, her economic policy. Inflation was over 10%, with unemployment climbing towards three million, a figure not seen since the 1930s.
In July 1981 the most intense and prolonged instance of public unrest in the United Kingdom in the late twentieth century had occurred in the Toxteth area of Liverpool, following on the heels of similar riots in the St Paul's area of Bristol, Handsworth and Brixton.
Crosby was regarded as a very safe seat for the Conservatives. Page had sat as the constituency MP since the 1953 Crosby by-election, and the party had held the seat since its creation in 1950, also easily holding its predecessor seat, Waterloo since 1918. The constituency contained some of the wealthiest areas in the North of England. The districts of Blundellsands in Crosby and Freshfield in Formby had more in common with the likes of Surrey than they did with the nearby City of Liverpool. Only Waterloo and Seaforth, at the southern end of the constituency could be considered as working-class. The seat consisted of three main conurbations; Formby, to the north, Maghull, to the east, and Crosby, to the south.
Crosby constituency had one of the top-ten highest levels of owner-occupation in the country, and had one of the largest electorates in England with over 83,000 voters.
Notably, Crosby had one of the largest Roman Catholic electorates in England and Wales, with about one third of the voters adherents of the faith. There were no fewer than eighteen Catholic churches in the constituency, numerous Catholic schools including St. Mary's College, and several Catholic charities including Jospice. The Catholicism of the area could be ascribed to two factors: those of Liverpool-Irish ancestry whose families had migrated the six miles north from the city-centre over the previous century to become the middle-class intelligentsia, doctors, lawyers and the like; and a significant indigenous group who traced their roots to the village of Little Crosby, one of the oldest extant Catholic villages in England.
At the 1979 general election, Page had gained more than half the votes cast. [1] For the by-election, the Conservatives stood John Butcher, a chartered accountant and a Royal Navy reservist, living in Cheshire and working in Warrington. [2]
The Labour Party had taken second place in 1979, with just over a quarter of the vote. [1] Their candidate had been Tony Mulhearn, a leading figure on Liverpool City Council, and a prominent member of the Militant tendency, a far left wing group with considerable influence in the city. [3] For the by-election, the party instead chose John Backhouse, the Chair of the Crosby Labour Party, a local teacher and a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activist. [2]
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was formed by a split of some prominent figures on the right of the Labour Party in March 1981. Its main figures were the "Gang of Four" – Shirley Williams, Roy Jenkins, David Owen and Bill Rodgers. [4] Of the four, Williams and Jenkins were out of Parliament, with the party keen for them to stand in by-elections under their new party label. Following the agreement of an electoral pact with the Liberal Party, who had come third in Crosby in 1979, with 15% of the vote, [1] the two parties supported Jenkins in the 1981 Warrington by-election, where he narrowly failed to capture the seat. At Crosby, they agreed to support Williams in an attempt to become the SDP's first successful Parliamentary candidate. Williams, it transpired later, had no particular urge to return to what she described as "an old men's club", and felt her talents would be better used outside Parliament. [ citation needed ] However, her father, George Catlin, had been born in nearby Liverpool, and the constituency's large Roman Catholic electorate seemed tailor-made for a practising Catholic like Shirley Williams.
The previous month the Liberal Bill Pitt had won the Croydon North West by-election by-election, having finished in a distant third place in the same constituency in 1979. In the wake of that result Liberal leader David Steel had said that the Alliance seemed to have taken support away from both of the main parties in almost equal measure, and as a result he believed "that we are now unstoppable." [5] The victorious Pitt claimed that the Alliance had "caught the imagination of the voters" and that as consequence there were "no longer any safe seats for Tory or Labour in the country." The political editor of The Glasgow Herald , Geoffrey Parkhouse, said the Croydon result "shattered" both Labour and the Conservative leadership who would fear Pitt's prediction. He also stated that the result made Williams the favourite to win in Crosby. [5]
The fourth candidate in 1979 had been from the Ecology Party, receiving 2.4% of the vote, in one of the party's better results. For the by-election, the party selected Richard Small, a local lecturer. [2]
John Desmond Lewis, a 22-year-old student from Hayes in Greater London, [6] contested the election as the President of the Cambridge University Raving Loony Society. For the election, he changed his name by deed poll to Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim Bus Stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel, the outlandish name of a character from Monty Python's "Election Night Special" sketch. In the sketch, the character by that name wins Luton for the Silly Party. [7] [8]
Veteran candidate Bill Boaks stood as "Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident", while Tom Keen stood in support of a Conservative-Liberal Alliance. [2] John Kennedy stood to highlight the case of seven students at Middlesex Polytechnic who had been suspended after a sit-in protest demanding nursery facilities, [7] while Donald Potter, a former Young Conservative and founder of the "Close Encounters" lonely heart group, stood to promote his idea of a national phone line for lonely people. [9]
With the result declared at Chesterfield High School, [10] Williams won the election, taking almost half the votes cast and became the first MP to be elected under the SDP label. The Conservatives and Labour both fell back by more than 15% of the vote and dropped to second and third positions respectively. For Labour, Backhouse took less than 10% of the vote and lost his deposit, while none of the other candidates achieved 1% of the votes cast. [7] Upon her victory, Williams declared "To the day, eight months all to the day. Given that, I think tonight's result is a miracle by anybody's standard's. Don't you?" She went on to declare that "there is no a single safe seat left in the country", [11] in reference to the constituency having previously been a safe Conservative seat.
Jenkins won another seat for the SDP at the Glasgow Hillhead by-election in 1982, but the party suffered setbacks at the 1983 general election, and Williams lost Crosby to a new Conservative candidate aided by the fact that boundary changes had been implemented bringing Aintree into the constituency in place of Waterloo and Seaforth (which transferred to Bootle Constituency).
When the results were declared, Lewis was referred to by the Returning Officer as "Mr Tarquin Biscuit-Barrel". He later worked with Screaming Lord Sutch to form the Official Monster Raving Loony Party for the 1983 Bermondsey by-election. [12]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SDP | Shirley Williams | 28,118 | 49.07 | +33.83 | |
| Conservative | John Butcher | 22,829 | 39.84 | -17.11 | |
| Labour | John Backhouse | 5,450 | 9.51 | -15.87 | |
| Ecology | Richard Small | 480 | 0.83 | -1.61 | |
| Raving Loony | Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim Bus Stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel | 223 | 0.39 | New | |
| Independent | Tom Keen | 99 | 0.17 | New | |
| Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident | Bill Boaks | 36 | 0.06 | New | |
| Independent | John Kennedy | 31 | 0.05 | New | |
| Independent | Donald Potter | 31 | 0.05 | New | |
| Majority | 5,289 | 9.23 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 57,297 | 69.3 | -5.9 | ||
| SDP gain from Conservative | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Graham Page | 34,768 | 56.95 | +5.44 | |
| Labour | Tony Mulhearn | 15,496 | 25.38 | -5.06 | |
| Liberal | Anthony Hill | 9,302 | 15.24 | -2.81 | |
| Ecology | Peter Hussey | 1,489 | 2.44 | +2.44 | |
| Majority | 19,272 | 31.56 | +10.49 | ||
| Turnout | 61,055 | 75.18 | +1.67 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
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.
Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from 1974 to 1979. She was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981 and, at the time of her retirement from politics, was a Liberal Democrat.
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was a centrist and social liberal political and electoral alliance in the United Kingdom.
William Henry Pitt was a British politician. A Liberal Member of Parliament between 1981 and 1983, he was the first candidate elected to Parliament under the banner of the SDP–Liberal Alliance.
A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of Labour MP Bob Mellish. Peter Tatchell stood as the candidate for the Labour Party, and Simon Hughes stood for the Liberal Party. Following a bitter campaign, the Liberals made huge gains and took the seat, with a majority of votes cast. Labour's vote fell from 63.6 per cent in May 1979 to 26.1 per cent as Tatchell came a distant second, while the Conservative candidate, Robert Hughes, managed only fourth place, losing his deposit. With a swing of 44.2%, the 1983 Bermondsey by-election remains the largest by-election swing in British political history.
Bootle is a constituency which has been represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament, since 2015 by Peter Dowd of the Labour Party.
Crosby was a constituency in Merseyside, represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until 2010. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election.
Croydon Central is a constituency created in 1974 and is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Labour MP Sarah Jones. The seat bucked the trend in national results in 2019, with Labour holding the seat with a slightly increased majority.
Charles Patrick Wall was an English Trotskyist political activist who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford North from 1987 until his death. Wall was a long-standing member of the Militant group.
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.
Michael Stuart Thomas is a former British politician, identified with the Labour Party until 1981 and thereafter with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He became well known for his role in both the establishment of the SDP and then in the SDP's subsequent demise. The SDP's leader, Roy Jenkins, referred to Thomas as the "pint-sized Pavarotti", on the basis of his stocky build and beard together with his ebullient manner.
Parliamentary by-elections in the United Kingdom occur when a Member of Parliament (MP) vacates a House of Commons seat during the course of a parliament.
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.
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 1981 Warrington by-election was held on 16 July 1981.
The 1986 Knowsley North by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 November 1986 for the British House of Commons constituency of Knowsley North.
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.
The 1982 Coatbridge and Airdrie by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 24 June 1982 for the British House of Commons constituency of Coatbridge and Airdrie.
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.
