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Constituency of Penrith and The Border | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 55.9% ( 17.2%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1983 Penrith and The Border by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 28 July 1983 for the House of Commons constituency of Penrith and The Border in Cumbria.
Held seven weeks after the election in which the Conservatives won a second term by a landslide, it was the very first by-election of the 1983–1987 Parliament.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), William Whitelaw had been elevated to the peerage as Viscount Whitelaw. Whitelaw had held the seat since the 1955 general election, and had been Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party since 1974, and Deputy Prime Minister since 1979, serving as Home Secretary from 1979 until his ennoblement and appointment as Leader of the House of Lords.
The result of the contest was a narrow victory for the Conservative candidate, David Maclean, who won with a majority of 552 over the SDP–Liberal Alliance candidate Michael Young.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | David Maclean | 17,530 | 46.0 | −12.8 | |
| Liberal | Michael Young | 16,978 | 44.6 | +16.7 | |
| Labour | Lindsay Williams | 2,834 | 7.4 | −5.8 | |
| Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 412 | 1.1 | New | |
| Retired Naval Officer | Eric Morgan | 150 | 0.4 | New | |
| Death off Roads: Freight on Rail | Helen Anscomb | 72 | 0.2 | New | |
| Independent Socialist | John Connell | 69 | 0.2 | New | |
| New Britain | Peter Smith | 35 | 0.1 | New | |
| Majority | 552 | 1.4 | −29.5 | ||
| Turnout | 38,080 | 55.9 | −17.2 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -14.8 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | William Whitelaw | 29,304 | 58.8 | −2.4 | |
| Alliance | Michael Young | 13,883 | 27.9 | +11.4 | |
| Labour | W Williams | 6,612 | 13.3 | −9.1 | |
| Majority | 15,421 | 30.1 | −8.7 | ||
| Turnout | 49,799 | 73.1 | −3.9 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as de facto Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1988. He was Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1991.
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.
David John Maclean, Baron Blencathra, is a Conservative Party life peer. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Penrith and The Border from 1983 to 2010.
Copeland was a constituency in Cumbria created in 1983 and represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The constituency was represented in Parliament by Trudy Harrison, of the Conservative Party, from a by-election in February 2017 until its abolition for the 2024 general election. The seat had been held by Labour candidates at elections between 1983 and 2015 inclusive.
Penrith and The Border was a constituency in Cumbria represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. Throughout its existence it elected only members of the Conservative Party.
Westmorland and Lonsdale is a constituency in the south of Cumbria, represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2005 by Tim Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats (2015–2017).
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Mark Ian Jenkinson is a British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the abolished seat of Workington from 2019 to the 2024 general election. In the 2024 United Kingdom general election, he contested Penrith and Solway but was defeated by Labour candidate Markus Campbell-Savours.
Neil Peter Hammerton HudsonFRCVS is a British Conservative Party politician, academic, and veterinary surgeon who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Epping Forest since 2024, and previously for Penrith and The Border from 2019 to 2024. He served on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee for four years, beginning in 2020. He is the first vet elected to the House of Commons since 1884.
