1983 Penrith and The Border by-election

1983 Penrith and The Border by-election

←  1983 28 July 1983 1987  →
Constituency of Penrith and The Border
Turnout	55.9% ( 17.2%)
First party Second party Third party   Lib Lab Candidate David Maclean Michael Young Lindsay Williams Party Conservative Liberal Labour Popular vote 17,530 16,978 2,834 Percentage 46.0% 44.6% 7.4% Swing 12.8% 16.7% 5.8
MP before election William Whitelaw Conservative Subsequent MP David Maclean Conservative

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.

Vacancy

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.

Result

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.

Defeated candidate Eric Morgan brought an election petition challenging the result on several grounds, all of which were rejected by the trial judge: ^[1]

• illegal election expenses and false declaration of election expenses (relating to spending on committee rooms) — no evidence to support
• false statement of fact (a list of candidates published in The Daily Telegraph omitted Morgan) — unfortunate but not significant
• undue influence by Viscount Whitelaw — the judge called the claim "an enormous impertinence"

Votes

Penrith and The Border by-election, 28 July 1983 ^[2]

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

General election, 1983: Penrith and The Border

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

References

1. Cumberland and Westmorland Herald . 24 December 1983. p. 1.
2. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1983–87 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2015.

See also

• Cumbria portal

• Penrith and The Border (UK Parliament constituency)
• Penrith
• Lists of United Kingdom by-elections