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| Turnout | 36% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On 9 October 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Heywood and Middleton. It was triggered by the death of its MP Jim Dobbin on 6 September 2014. [1] [2] It was held on the same day as the Clacton by-election. The Labour Party narrowly held the seat following a recount. [3] UK Independence Party (UKIP) came second, and increased its vote by 36 percentage points since the previous general election.
On 10 September 2014, it was announced that the election would be held on 9 October 2014. [4] The nominations closed at 4pm on Tuesday 16 September. [5] The Clacton by-election was held on the same day. [6]
Labour's decision to call for a by-election before Dobbin's funeral was criticised by Paul Nuttall and Steven Woolfe, UKIP MEPs for North West England, with the former describing it as "shoddy politics". Labour MP for Chesterfield Toby Perkins defended the timing, saying "With the agreement of Jim's family, we have moved the writ today as it is vital that the people of Heywood & Middleton constituency are not left without representation for an extended period". [7]
UKIP candidate John Bickley distributed a leaflet in which he said "Labour's betrayal is no more apparent than with the young white working-class girls of Rotherham and Rochdale where rather than upset immigrant communities, years of abuse were ignored and complaints swept under the carpet". [8] Of this the Labour MP for neighbouring Rochdale, Simon Danczuk, said "It's now clear that UKIP will try and turn grooming and the death of Lee Rigby into a political football. They're playing politics with horrendous crimes that shocked Heywood and Middleton at a time when the wounds of these events are still healing in our town." [9]
During an interview on Daily Politics , after the leaflet was called "divisive" by his Labour opponent Liz McInnes, Bickley criticised McInnes for publishing a leaflet with the heading "WAITING TO DIE" after the death of Jim Dobbin, saying it was landing on the doorsteps of the terminally ill. [10]
On 16 September 2014, Rochdale Borough Council published the statement of persons nominated, which confirmed five candidates would contest the by-election. [11]
Labour candidate Liz McInnes is a local councillor on Rossendale Borough Council. [12]
The Liberal Democrats selected Anthony Smith, a local businessman. [13]
The UK Independence Party announced on 11 September that their candidate would be John Bickley, a software businessman who had stood in the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election in February, in which he had come second. [14]
The Green Party announced their candidate on 14 September as Middleton resident Abi Jackson, a recent graduate of the University of Huddersfield with a master's degree in psychology. [15]
| Date(s) conducted | Polling organisation/client | Sample size | Lab | Con | LD | UKIP | Green | Others | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 Oct 2014 | Heywood and Middleton by-election Result | 28,472 | 40.9% | 12.3% | 5.1% | 38.7% | 3.1% | - | 2.2% |
| 4 Oct | Lord Ashcroft | 1,000 | 47% | 16% | 5% | 28% | 4% | - | 19% |
| 30 Sep | Survation/The Sun | 551 | 50% | 13% | 4% | 31% | 3% | - | 19% |
| 6 May 2010 | General Election Results | 46,125 | 40.1% | 27.2% | 22.7% | 2.6% | - | 7.4% | 12.9% |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Liz McInnes | 11,633 | 40.9 |  0.8 | |
| UKIP | John Bickley | 11,016 | 38.7 | 36.1 | |
| Conservative | Iain Gartside | 3,496 | 12.3 |  14.9 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Anthony Smith | 1,457 | 5.1 | 17.6 | |
| Green | Abi Jackson | 870 | 3.1 | New | |
| Majority | 617 | 2.2 | 10.7 | ||
| Turnout | 28,472 | 36.0 | 21.5 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
Labour retained the seat with a small increase in vote share but a reduced majority. The 36-point increase in UKIP support is one of the largest increases in vote share ever recorded in a by-election. Only in six previous contests in Great Britain has a party enjoyed a larger increase. It is also the highest increase ever recorded for a party that did not win the by-election. Conversely, the fall in the Liberal Democrat vote was the largest recorded for that party in any of the by-elections they have contested since their formation. [16]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour Co-op | Jim Dobbin | 18,499 | 40.1 | 8.2 | |
| Conservative | Mike Holly | 12,528 | 27.2 | 5.4 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Wera Hobhouse | 10,474 | 22.7 | 2.5 | |
| BNP | Peter Greenwood | 3,239 | 7.0 | 2.6 | |
| UKIP | Victoria Cecil | 1,215 | 2.6 | 0.7 | |
| Independent | Chrissy Lee | 170 | 0.4 | New | |
| Majority | 5,971 | 12.9 | 13.6 | ||
| Turnout | 46,125 | 57.5 | 3.7 | ||
| Labour Co-op hold | Swing | 6.8 | |||
James Dobbin was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and microbiologist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 1997 until his death in 2014.
Heywood and Middleton North is a constituency in Greater Manchester represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Elsie Blundell of the Labour Party.
John Douglas Wilson Carswell is a British former politician who served as a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, co-founded Vote Leave, and since 2021 also serves as president and CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy.
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Clacton is a constituency in Essex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2024 by Nigel Farage of Reform UK. It is centred on the seaside town of Clacton, hence its name.
Middleton and Prestwich was a parliamentary constituency centred on the Middleton and Prestwich districts of Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
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Simon Christopher Danczuk is a British author and former Member of Parliament (MP) who represented the constituency of Rochdale between 2010 and 2017. Elected as a member of the Labour Party, he was suspended from the party in 2015 after it emerged he had exchanged explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl. He has co-written two books, Smile for the Camera: The Double Life of Cyril Smith and Scandal at Dolphin Square. He was the Reform UK candidate in the 2024 Rochdale by-election, which was later won by Workers Party of Britain leader George Galloway. He came sixth behind Liberal Democrats, Labour, Conservatives and Independent candidate David Tully.
On 13 February 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Wythenshawe and Sale East, following the death of the former MP, Paul Goggins.
Michael Joseph Patrick Kane is a British politician who has served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport since July 2024. A member of the Labour Party, Kane has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East since 2014.
On 9 October 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Clacton in Essex, England. The by-election was triggered by the Conservative MP for Clacton, Douglas Carswell, defecting to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and subsequently resigning his seat to seek re-election as its candidate.
A by-election was held on 20 November 2014 for the UK parliamentary constituency of Rochester and Strood in Kent, England. The sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Mark Reckless called it on joining the UK Independence Party (UKIP), from the Conservatives. He resigned his seat.
Elizabeth Anne McInnes is a British Labour Party politician and biochemist who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood and Middleton from 2014 to 2019.
On 3 December 2015, a by-election was held in the UK Parliamentary constituency of Oldham West and Royton in Greater Manchester. This was the first by-election of the 56th UK Parliament.
Wera Benedicta Hobhouse is a British-German Liberal Democrat politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Bath since 2017.
Christopher Mark Clarkson is a British Conservative Party politician who was Member of Parliament (MP) for Heywood & Middleton from 2019 to 2024. Prior to entering Parliament, Clarkson was a Salford City Councillor for Worsley.
An election took place in the Essex constituency of Clacton on 4 July 2024, as part of the 2024 United Kingdom general election. Nigel Farage, the newly re-appointed leader of Reform UK and the former leader of the UK Independence Party, won the election with 46.2% of the vote and successfully entered Parliament after seven previous attempts. As "figurehead of the country's populist right", Farage brought Clacton to international attention.
