Shirley Vivian Teresa Brittain Williams, Baroness Williams of Crosby, was a British politician and academic. Originally a Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), she served in the Labour cabinet from 1974 to 1979. She was one of the "Gang of Four" rebels who founded the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981 and, at the time of her retirement from politics, was a Liberal Democrat.
The Liberal Party is a liberal political party in the United Kingdom that was founded in 1989 as a continuation of the original Liberal Party by members who opposed its merger with the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to form the Liberal Democrats. The party holds five local council seats. The party promotes a hybrid of both classical and social liberal tendencies.
Democratic Labour was a minor political party operating in the United Kingdom in the 1970s. It was formed by the Labour MP Dick Taverne when his Constituency Labour Party (CLP) in the Lincoln constituency deselected him as its candidate at the next general election. He had fallen out with it over Britain's proposed membership of the European Communities, which he supported but it did not.
Rosemary Susan Barnes, OBE is an English charity organiser and former politician. She became nationally known when she won a by-election in 1987 for the Social Democratic Party.
The 1982 Social Democratic Party leadership election was called following the formation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). The party had been founded by the Gang of Four the previous year and had rapidly built up its membership, but lacked a formal leadership structure. Each of the Gang of Four was regarded as coequal leader.
Jesse Dickson Mabon, sometimes known as Dick Mabon, was a Scottish politician, physician and business executive. He was the founder of The Manifesto Group of Labour MPs, an alliance of moderate MPs who fought the perceived leftward drift of the Labour Party in the 1970s. He was a Labour Co-operative MP until October 1981, when he defected to the SDP. He lost his seat in 1983, and rejoined the Labour Party in 1991.
Edmund Ian Marshall was a British politician and churchman. After beginning his career as a Liberal councillor in Wallasey in the 1960s, he joined the Labour Party and was elected Member of Parliament for Goole at a 1971 by-election. He held the seat until 1983. He later joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP), which merged with the Liberals in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats.
Colin Barry Phipps was a British petroleum geologist and chairman of several petroleum companies. From 1974 to 1979 he was a Labour Party Member of Parliament, but in the 1980s he joined the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
Michael Stuart Thomas is a former British politician, identified with the Labour Party until 1981 and thereafter with the Social Democratic Party (SDP). He became well known for his role in both the establishment of the SDP and then in the SDP's subsequent demise. The SDP's leader, Roy Jenkins, referred to Thomas as the "pint-sized Pavarotti", on the basis of his stocky build and beard together with his ebullient manner.
Local elections were held in the United Kingdom on 6 May 1976. Elections were for one third of the seats on Metropolitan borough councils and for all seats on Non-Metropolitan district councils in England; and for all seats on the Welsh district councils.
Parliamentary by-elections in the United Kingdom occur when a Member of Parliament (MP) vacates a House of Commons seat during the course of a parliament.
In the United Kingdom, general elections occur at least every five years. About 650 constituencies return a member of Parliament. Prior to 1945, electoral competition in the United Kingdom exhibited features which make meaningful comparisons with modern results difficult. Hence, unless otherwise stated, records are based on results since the 1945 general election, and earlier exceptional results are listed separately.
Two Bootle by-elections were held during 1990, for the House of Commons constituency of Bootle in Merseyside.
The 1973 Lincoln by-election of 1 March 1973 saw the re-election of Dick Taverne as Member of Parliament for Lincoln as a Democratic Labour representative, after Taverne's pro-Common Market views saw him repudiated by the Lincoln Constituency Labour Party. The by-election led to considerable speculation, stoked by Taverne, about the formation of a new centre party, but Taverne was unable to make his victory last.
The 1973 Chester-le-Street by-election was a parliamentary by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Chester-le-Street on 1 March 1973.
The Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) was a political organisation in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1975 as an anti-communist group within the Labour Party, it was dissolved following the establishment of the Social Democratic Party in 1981.
Ian Cameron Swales is a British Liberal Democrat politician. He was the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Redcar in England. He is the only person ever to gain a North East Region Commons seat for the Liberal Democrats. Swales took Redcar from Labour incumbent Vera Baird for the Liberal Democrats at the 2010 general election, with a 21.8% swing. Swales added over 10,000 votes to his 2005 general election total. This was the biggest swing against any Labour candidate in the election and was also biggest majority overcome by any Liberal Democrat, until the 2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election. He stood down at the 2015 general election.
The Social Democratic Party (SDP) was a centrist to centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. The party supported a mixed economy, electoral reform, European integration and a decentralised state while rejecting the possibility of trade unions being overly influential within industrial relations. The SDP officially advocated social democracy, and unofficially for social liberalism as well.
The region of East Midlands is divided into 47 parliamentary constituencies which is made up of 12 borough constituencies and 35 county constituencies. Since the 2024 United Kingdom general election, 29 are represented by Labour MPs, 15 by Conservative MPs, 2 by Reform UK MPs and 1 by an independent MP.
