A by-election was held in the Bermondsey constituency in South London, on 24 February 1983, following the resignation of LabourMPBob Mellish. Peter Tatchell stood as the candidate for the Labour Party, and Simon Hughes stood for the Liberal Party. Following a bitter campaign, the Liberals made huge gains and took the seat, with a majority of votes cast. Labour's vote fell from 63.6 per cent in May 1979 to 26.1 per cent as Tatchell came a distant second, while the Conservative candidate, Robert Hughes, managed only fourth place. With a swing of 44.2%, the 1983 Bermondsey by-election remains the largest by-election swing in British political history.
Bermondsey was a borough constituency centred on the Bermondsey district of South London, England. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Election were held using the first-past-the-post voting system.
South London is the southern part of London, England. Situated south of the River Thames, it includes the historic districts of Southwark, Lambeth, Bankside and Greenwich.
The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom which has been described as an alliance of social democrats, democratic socialists and trade unionists. The party's platform emphasises greater state intervention, social justice and strengthening workers' rights.
Bob Mellish had represented the constituency and its predecessors in the House of Commons since 1946. He was the Labour Chief Whip from 1969 until 1976, but had become disenchanted with the left-wing drift of the Labour Party, and resigned from both the Party and his Parliamentary seat in 1982. He was recruited by the Conservative government to the board of the London Docklands Development Corporation; as he did not wish to be disqualified, the post was made non-salaried until such time as Mellish chose to accept payment. This meant that Mellish had a paid job to go to as soon as he wanted.
The Chief Whip is a political office in some legislatures whose task is to administer the whipping system that tries to ensure that members of the party attend and vote as the party leadership desires.
The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its seventeen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of 8.5 square miles (22 km2) in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and Southwark. LDDC helped to create Canary Wharf, Surrey Quays shopping centre, London City Airport, ExCeL Exhibition Centre, London Arena and the Docklands Light Railway, bringing more than 120,000 new jobs to the Docklands and making the area highly sought after for housing. Although initially fiercely resisted by local councils and residents, today it is generally regarded as having been a success and is now used as an exemplar of large-scale regeneration, although tensions between older and more recent residents remain.
On 7 November 1981, Bermondsey Labour Party selected Peter Tatchell, its Secretary, as prospective Parliamentary candidate. Tatchell was a leading member of the left-wing faction that had taken control of the local party the previous year. He was also a contributor to London Labour Briefing, a magazine that circulated among the London left, and had written an article suggesting the use of extra-Parliamentary direct action by the Labour Party. This article came to the attention of James Wellbeloved, a former London Labour MP who had defected to the Social Democratic Party; Wellbeloved then referred to it in a Parliamentary Question to Margaret Thatcher on 3 December.[1]
Peter Gary Tatchell is a British human rights campaigner, originally from Australia, best known for his work with LGBT social movements.
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economical and political acts in which the actors use their power to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to others by, for instance, revealing an existing problem, highlighting an alternative, or demonstrating a possible solution. Both direct action and actions appealing to others can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the action participants. Examples of nonviolent direct action can include (obstructing) sit-ins, strikes, workplace occupations, street blockades or hacktivism, while violent direct action may include political violence or assaults. Tactics such as sabotage and property destruction are sometimes considered violent. By contrast, electoral politics, diplomacy, negotiation, protests and arbitration are not usually described as direct action, as they are politically mediated. Non-violent actions are sometimes a form of civil disobedience, and may involve a degree of intentional law-breaking where persons place themselves in arrestable situations in order to make a political statement but other actions may not violate criminal law. The aim of direct action is to either obstruct another political agent or political organization from performing some practice to which the activists object, or to solve perceived problems which traditional societal institutions are not addressing to the satisfaction of the direct action participants. Non-violent direct action has historically been an assertive regular feature of the tactics employed by social movements, including Mahatma Gandhi's Indian Independence Movement and the Civil Rights Movement.
Alfred James Wellbeloved was a British politician.
Labour Party leader Michael Foot denounced the article and declared "the individual concerned is not an endorsed member of the Labour Party and as far as I'm concerned never will be". (It was suggested by some that Foot had confused Peter Tatchell with Peter Taaffe, then the leader of the TrotskyistMilitant tendency, and that his denunciation was so strong that he could not later retract it without appearing weak.)[citation needed] Foot later changed "endorsed member" to "endorsed candidate", and at the next meeting of the Labour Party National Executive Committee, Tatchell was narrowly rejected as a candidate. Mellish was not reassured about the future direction of the Labour Party and resigned from it on 2 August 1982, a clear preliminary to resigning his seat, which he did by taking the Chiltern Hundreds on 1 November that year. The left wing of the Labour Party, defending the right of Bermondsey to select a candidate of its own choosing, managed to obtain agreement that Tatchell would be eligible for selection, and Tatchell was duly selected again in January 1983.
Michael Mackintosh Foot was a British Labour Party politician. Foot began his career as a journalist, on Tribune and the Evening Standard. He co-wrote the classic polemic against appeasement of Adolf Hitler, Guilty Men, under a pseudonym.
Peter Taaffe is a British political activist and journalist. He is the general secretary of the Socialist Party of England and Wales and member of the International Executive Committee of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), which has sections in over 45 countries around the world.
Tabloid newspapers opposed to the Labour left had begun researching his background when Michael Foot denounced him, and in particular Tatchell's activities with the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. Several stories were published which made it clear by implication that he was gay.
The Gay Liberation Front (GLF) was the name of a number of gay liberation groups, the first of which was formed in New York City in 1969, immediately after the Stonewall riots, in which police clashed with gay demonstrators.
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to people of the same sex. It "also refers to a person's sense of identity based on those attractions, related behaviors, and membership in a community of others who share those attractions."
Other candidates
Simon Hughes, on a Bermondsey election leaflet in 1983
The Liberal Party was one of the two major parties in the United Kingdom with the opposing Conservative Party in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The party arose from an alliance of Whigs and free trade Peelites and Radicals favourable to the ideals of the American and French Revolutions in the 1850s. By the end of the 19th century, it had formed four governments under William Gladstone. Despite being divided over the issue of Irish Home Rule, the party returned to government in 1905 and then won a landslide victory in the following year's general election.
Sir Simon Henry Ward Hughes is a British politician. Hughes was Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2010 to 2014, and from 2013 until 2015 was Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for the constituency of Bermondsey and Old Southwark from 1983 until 2015.
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions. Often, barristers are also recognised as legal scholars.
The right-wing former Labour leader of Southwark Borough Council, John O'Grady, who had been a target for the left-wing faction locally, also decided to stand under the banner 'Real Bermondsey Labour' with Bob Mellish's support and encouragement. His campaign was dominated by personal opposition to Tatchell and defence of his leadership of the Council. Twelve other candidates stood, including Screaming Lord Sutch, appearing for the first time under the Official Monster Raving Loony Party label, and the Dowager Lady Birdwood.
Esmond Bevan intended to stand as an independent Labour candidate, but erroneously entered his occupation in the section on the nomination papers headed 'description', thus appearing on ballot papers as "Systems Designer".
Start of the campaign
The Labour campaign started disastrously when it was discovered that the first leaflets had been printed at Cambridge Heath Press, owned by the Militant tendency (then practising entryism in the Labour Party; a group whose five key members were expelled two days before polling day). The leaflets were all pulped and reprinted, but the cost of the first printing still counted against the limit for election spending.
Attacks on Tatchell
There was much controversy over Tatchell's homosexuality. The Labour Party persuaded Tatchell to keep quiet about his sexual orientation, although he had previously declared himself 'out'. Various campaigners for opposition candidates, as well as many within the Labour Party, made homophobic comments about Tatchell. Widespread graffiti throughout the constituency referred to him in derogatory terms, while some of those putting up posters in his support found their windows attacked. Tatchell received hate mail, including a live cartridge, and was attacked when out in the street.
Some of the other by-election candidates joined in: John O'Grady (Southwark Council leader, who was promoted as the 'Real Bermondsey' Labour candidacy by the previous MP, Bob Mellish) was filmed touring the constituency on the back of a horse and cart, singing a song which referred to Tatchell "wearing his trousers back to front". On the last weekend of the campaign, an anonymous leaflet was sent round the constituency headed "Which Queen will you vote for?", contrasting the republican Tatchell, who was pictured looking very effeminate, with Queen Elizabeth II. The leaflet gave Tatchell's home address and telephone number.[2]
An alternative analysis of Tatchell's eventual defeat was given by David Sutch, the Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate, in his 1991 autobiography Life As Sutch (ISBN0-00-637805-6). When being interviewed on TV at the by-election count, Sutch related to Tatchell how horrified he was at the treatment Tatchell had received, but added that "what I did not tell him was that he had been so bad a candidate that he had largely brought it on himself". Sutch criticised Tatchell's preference for press conferences and press releases rather than traditional meeting-and-greeting, which was generally regarded as the best way to win hearts and minds at a by-election. In a later interview, when the subject of Bermondsey came up, Sutch said that Tatchell "seemed to think all he needed to do to become the MP was turn up at the count."
Homophobia and the Liberal campaign
During the by-election, members of the Liberal Party were accused of having joined in homophobic attacks on Tatchell.
Male Liberal canvassers were seen wearing badges reading "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell". This was criticised by Roy Hattersley at a Labour news conference.[3] One Liberal campaigner, John Hein (who subsequently refused to join the successor party, the Liberal Democrats, and became a member of the Liberal Party instead), wrote in the usenet newsgroup uk.politics.electoral on 19 May 1997:
As a member of the Liberal Gay Action Group which produced and wore the 'I have been kissed by Peter Tatchell' and 'I haven't been kissed by Peter Tatchell' badges, I think I should explain why the badges were produced and worn. (Although I wasn't there on the day that they were worn and had I been, mine would have read 'I wouldn't want to be kissed by Peter Tatchell').
We were furious at the way in which Peter was attempting to go back into the closet (something which he has since admitted was wrong). This was our protest.
In an interview with Simon Edge of The Independent published on 17 December 1996, the former Liberal Party Chief Executive, Andy Ellis, was asked whether he approved of the activity undertaken by the Liberal Gay Action Group, and replied "Nothing went on in Bermondsey that we were unhappy with."
Though Liberal campaigners criticised Tatchell for being 'in the closet', it emerged during campaigning for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats in January 2006 that Hughes had had homosexual relationships himself.[4] Hughes apologised in the interview for not being honest about his sexuality, having denied that he was gay in an interview a week earlier,[5] admitting that he "gave a reply that wasn't untrue but was clearly misleading" as he is in fact bisexual having "had both homosexual and heterosexual relationships in the past."
Hughes also apologised for the actions of Liberals in the Bermondsey campaign, saying, "I regret that in a campaign, actually run often by agents and organisers, the candidate does not have nearly as much say as perhaps they should have, but I take responsibility". "I have never been comfortable about the whole of that campaign, as Peter knows, and I said that to him in the past.... Where there were things that were inappropriate or wrong, I apologise for that."
The one controversial issue that was linked to Hughes was a leaflet describing the contest as a "straight choice" between Liberal and Labour. When challenged on Newsnight about it in 2006, Hughes admitted that it was "an unacceptable form of language", and "those are the sort of things that shouldn't have happened",[6] appearing to acknowledge that the slogan had acted as an inadvertent slur against Tatchell.
When asked for his opinions on the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates in 2006, Tatchell, by then a member of the Green Party, said that he had forgiven Hughes, saying "Simon benefited from these dirty tricks, but that was 23 years ago—I don't hold a grudge. It's time to forgive and move on."[7] He added that Hughes should be judged on his 23-year record as an MP and that "if I were a Lib Dem member, I would vote for Simon Hughes as party leader." In the 2010 General Election campaign, while still a Green Party member, Tatchell encouraged tactical voting for the Liberal Democrats.
Opinion polls
Bermondsey was one of the first by-elections to be extensively polled. The polls showed, at first, that the Labour vote was substantially down on the 1979 election figures, but that none of the rival candidates were particularly close. As the campaign went on, the Liberal candidate began to move into a clear second position and the other candidates faded. Later in the campaign, there were rumours which claimed that the right-wing of the Labour Party nationally wished to lose the seat, as it would prove that left-wing Labour candidates were unelectable. By the eve of poll, it was clear that large numbers of previously Labour voters were defecting to other parties, and that non-Labour voters were lining up in support of the Liberal candidate as the one most likely to beat Labour.
Results
The Liberals made huge gains and took the seat, with a majority of votes cast.[8] Labour's vote fell from 63.6 per cent in May 1979 to 26.1 per cent as Tatchell came a distant second,[8] while O'Grady took third. The Conservatives managed only fourth place, for the first time since the Newham South by-election, 1974, and the last in Britain until the Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991. All candidates other than Liberal and Labour lost their deposits.[8]
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by the musician David Sutch, better known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow" or simply "Lord Sutch". It is notable for its deliberately bizarre policies and it effectively exists to satirise British politics, and to offer itself as an alternative for protest voters, especially in constituencies where the party holding the safe seat is unlikely to lose it.
David Edward Sutch, also known as 3rd Earl of Harrow, or simply Screaming Lord Sutch, was an English musician and serial parliamentary candidate. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party and served as its leader from 1983 to 1999, during which time he stood in numerous parliamentary elections. He holds the record for losing more than 40 elections in which he stood from 1963 to 1997. As a singer he variously worked with Keith Moon, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore, Charlie Watts and Nicky Hopkins.
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen councillors in local government.
This is a list of notable events in the history of LGBT rights that took place in the year 1983.
The Member of Parliament for Kensington and Chelsea, Alan Clark, (Conservative) died of a brain tumour on 5 September 1999.
North Southwark and Bermondsey was a parliamentary constituency which returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The constituency was created for the 1997 general election.
Robert Joseph Mellish, Baron Mellish, PC was a British politician. He was a long-serving Labour Party MP and served as the Labour Chief Whip from 1969 until 1976, but in his later years he fell out with his local Constituency Labour Party which had become dominated by left-wingers, and eventually left the party.
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Lord Toby Jug is a British politician. He was the leader of the Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire branch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, serving as the party's media officer and a prospective parliamentary candidate, until being expelled from the Loony Party in 2014. He founded The Eccentric Party of Great Britain in 2015.
↑ Grice, Andrew (27 January 2006). "The 'homophobic' campaign that helped win Bermondsey". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 27 May 2009. Mr Tatchell, the openly gay Labour candidate in one of the dirtiest election campaigns in recent memory, said it was "time to move on", despite Mr Hughes's admission yesterday of gay affairs. He said Mr Hughes would make the best leader of the Liberal Democrats.
↑ O'Grady, Sean (7 January 2006). "Simon Hughes: Saint or winner". The Independent. London. This extraordinary dedication has protected him in what ought to be, and once was, the solid Labour seat of Southwark Bermondsey. This is the constituency Hughes famously won for the then Liberal-SDP Alliance in a 1983 by-election, a contest described by Gay News as "the dirtiest and most notorious by-election in British political history" because of the slurs on the Labour candidate Peter Tatchell, now better known as the force behind gay rights group Outrage!. During the campaign, some male Liberal workers wore badges reading "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell" and anonymous leaflets were circulating which asked "which Queen do you support?".
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