 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituency of Mitcham and Morden | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 48.5% ( 28.4%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Mitcham and Morden by-election was held on 3 June 1982. It was a rare example of a governing party (the British Conservatives) gaining a seat in a by-election.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Constituency of Mitcham and Morden | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turnout | 48.5% ( 28.4%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Mitcham and Morden by-election was held on 3 June 1982. It was a rare example of a governing party (the British Conservatives) gaining a seat in a by-election.
The by-election was caused by the resignation of Bruce Douglas-Mann, the Member of Parliament for Mitcham and Morden. Douglas-Mann had retained the seat for the Labour Party since its creation for the February 1974 general election. The constituency had been created from parts of Merton and Morden and Mitcham, both of which had usually generally returned Conservative Party MPs. At the 1979 general election, Douglas-Mann had held the seat with a majority of only 618 votes over the Conservatives. [1]
Douglas-Mann decided in early 1982 to join the recently formed Social Democratic Party (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. [2]
With a Conservative government in power, their share of the vote might have been expected to decline, but with the Falklands War in progress, their approval ratings were high, and the party hoped to make a decent showing. The party stood Angela Rumbold, a councillor in Kingston-upon-Thames.
The Labour Party, suffering from defections to the SDP, considered itself unlikely to hold the seat and stood David Nicholas.
The Liberal Party had agreed an electoral pact with the SDP the previous autumn and so did not stand a candidate against Douglas-Mann. However, Edward Larkin stood as an independent Liberal candidate.
Several other candidates stood. The far-right British National Front stood Joseph Pearce. Veteran by-election candidate Bill Boaks stood as a "Democratic Monarchist". Roy Sawh, a long-term campaigner for equal rights, stood as the "Ethnic Minority Candidate". Jitendra Bardwaj, who had been convicted of assaulting a police officer outside the House of Commons, stood as "COPS", in an attempt to highlight what he held was his unjust treatment, and Christopher Farnsworth stood as a "Computer Democrat".
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 focused on the unpredictable result, none of the independent candidates could make an impact, and the National Front vote declined from the previous election.
It was a rare example of a governing party gaining an additional seat with a by-election victory. Merton, Mitcham and Morden was the first seat gained in a by-election by an incumbent government since 1960 [3] at the Brighouse and Spenborough by-election. (The 1961 Bristol South East by-election was awarded to the Conservatives by an Election Court.) It was not until February 2017 that a governing party again gained a seat at a by-election, at the 2017 Copeland by-election. It was the last seat gained by the Conservatives at a by-election until the 2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election. [4]
The by-election was the first to see the incumbent party drop to third place since the 1958 Rochdale by-election, a situation which next occurred at the 1985 Brecon and Radnor by-election.
Rumbold held the seat until the 1997 general election, when it was retaken by Labour. Douglas-Mann stood for the seat again in the SDP colours at the 1983 general election, but was pushed into third place by Nicholas. Pearce later repudiated his views and became a Roman Catholic. The election proved to be one of Boaks' last, while Bardwaj stood in several further by-elections.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Angela Rumbold | 13,306 | 43.4 | −0.5 | |
| SDP | Bruce Douglas-Mann | 9,032 | 29.4 | +20.5 | |
| Labour | David Nicholas | 7,475 | 24.4 | −20.8 | |
| National Front | Joseph Pearce | 547 | 1.8 | −0.2 | |
| Independent Liberal | Edward Larkin | 123 | 0.4 | N/A | |
| Ethnic Minority Candidate | Roy Sawh | 84 | 0.3 | N/A | |
| Democratic Monarchist | Bill Boaks | 66 | 0.2 | N/A | |
| COPS | Jitendra Bardwaj | 22 | 0.1 | N/A | |
| Computer Democrat | Christopher Farnsworth | 18 | 0.0 | N/A | |
| Majority | 4,274 | 14.0 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 30,673 | 48.5 | -28.4 | ||
| Registered electors | 63,259 | ||||
| Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | +10.2 | |||
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.
Wimbledon is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Since 2005, the seat has been represented by Stephen Hammond of the Conservatives.
Mitcham and Morden is a constituency in Greater London represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Siobhain McDonagh of the Labour Party.
Tooting is a constituency created in 1974 in Greater London. It is represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2016 by Dr. Rosena Allin-Khan, a member of the Labour Party.
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.
The 1987 Greenwich by-election was a by-election to the British House of Commons held on 26 February 1987, shortly before the 1987 general election. The election was caused by the death of Guy Barnett, Labour Party Member of Parliament for Greenwich on 24 December 1986.
The 1980 Glasgow Central by-election was a by-election held on 26 June 1980 for the British House of Commons constituency of Glasgow Central, following the death of its sitting MP, Thomas McMillan.
Dame Angela Claire Rosemary Rumbold was a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament from a 1982 by-election until the 1997 general election.
Bruce Leslie Home Douglas-Mann was a British politician.
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.
A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough on 17 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 whose majority had been cut to only 47 votes at the 1959 general election.
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.
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 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 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.
The 1964 Merton Council election took place on 7 May 1964 to elect members of Merton London Borough Council in London, England. The whole council was up for election and the council went into no overall control.
Elections for the London Borough of Merton were held on 6 May 1982 to elect members of Merton London Borough Council in London, England. This was on the same day as other local elections in England and Scotland.
There was a by-election in the British parliamentary constituency of Copeland on 23 February 2017, following the resignation of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Jamie Reed. Conservative candidate Trudy Harrison gained the seat from Labour, the first gain for a governing party in a by-election since 1982.