1986 Ryedale by-election

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1986 Ryedale by-election
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
  1983 8 May 1986 1987  

Constituency of Ryedale
Turnout67.3% (Decrease2.svg4.5%)
 First partySecond partyThird party
  ElizabethShields.jpg
Con
Lab
Candidate Elizabeth Shields Neil Balfour Shirley Haines
Party Liberal Conservative Labour
Popular vote27,61222,6724,633
Percentage50.3%41.3%8.4%
SwingIncrease2.svg19.8%Decrease2.svg17.9%Decrease2.svg1.9%

MP before election

John Spence
Conservative

Subsequent MP

Elizabeth Shields
Liberal

The 1986 Ryedale by-election took place on 8 May 1986. The election was held on the same day as the 1986 local elections and the West Derbyshire by-election

Contents

It is the latest by-election to have just three candidates standing.

The seat was regained by the Conservatives the next year at the 1987 general election by John Greenway.

Background

In the spring of 1986 unemployment began rising at a greater rate than in previous years and the Conservative loss at Ryedale was a factor (according to Nigel Lawson) in "even committed supporters of the Government's economic strategy...insisting that reducing unemployment should now have priority". [1]

Result

Ryedale by-election, 1986 [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Liberal (Alliance) Elizabeth Shields 27,612 50.28 +19.8
Conservative Neil Balfour 22,67241.28−17.9
Labour Shirley Haines4,6338.44−1.9
Majority4,9409.00N/A
Turnout 54,91767.3−4.5
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing +19.0 [3]

Previous General election

General election 1983: Ryedale
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative John Spence 33,312 59.2
Alliance (Liberal) Elizabeth Shields 17,17030.5
Labour P Bloom5,81610.3
Majority16,14228.7
Turnout 56,838
Conservative win (new seat)

See also

Notes

  1. Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11. Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 641.
  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.
  3. Chris Cook and John Ramsden (eds.), By-elections in British Politics (Routledge, 1997), p. 11.