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On 5 June 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Newark, [1] [2] following the resignation of Patrick Mercer. [3] Conservative Robert Jenrick won the seat with a majority of 7,403.
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| Turnout | 52.79% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On 5 June 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Newark, [1] [2] following the resignation of Patrick Mercer. [3] Conservative Robert Jenrick won the seat with a majority of 7,403.
Mercer resigned the Conservative Party whip on 31 May 2013 after an investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme regarding allegations of paid lobbying without registering the interest. [4] He was paid £4,000 for asking questions in Parliament, and the Panorama team considered that he asked five parliamentary questions, but declared only £2,000 of the £4,000. [5] As a consequence, he said at the time that he would not stand in the 2015 general election. [6]
On 29 April, after being told that the Committee on Standards would recommend that he be suspended from the House of Commons for six months, Mercer announced that he would resign his seat: he told journalists on College Green that he was standing down from "God's county of Nottinghamshire". [3] [7] Mercer was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Three Chiltern Hundreds on 30 April 2014, a mechanism by which MPs resign. [8]
The writ was moved on 1 May 2014 for the by-election to be held on 5 June. [1] [9]
The nominations closed at 4pm on Tuesday 13 May with 11 candidates being nominated. [10]
The local Conservative Party had already selected Robert Jenrick to fight the seat. [11] Jenrick trained as a solicitor and is a director of Christie's auction house. He is married with two children.
Labour selected 27-year-old councillor Michael Payne, a former students' union president [12] and current deputy leader of Gedling Borough Council. [13]
The Liberal Democrats chose David Watts, leader of Broxtowe Borough Council. [13]
Nigel Farage was immediately interviewed on the evening of 29 April and said he was "tempted" to stand, but the next morning he ruled himself out. [14] UKIP instead announced that outspoken former Conservative and current UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer [15] [16] would stand in the by-election. [17]
The Bus Pass Elvis Party leader and perennial election candidate, David Bishop, announced on 6 May that he would stand in the by-election after taking fourth place ahead of the Liberal Democrats in a recent local authority by-election in Clifton North ward, Nottingham. [18]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Robert Jenrick | 17,431 | 45.0 | –8.9 | |
| UKIP | Roger Helmer | 10,028 | 25.9 | +22.1 | |
| Labour | Michael Payne | 6,842 | 17.7 | –4.7 | |
| Independent | Paul Baggaley | 1,891 | 4.9 | New | |
| Green | David Kirwan | 1,057 | 2.7 | New | |
| Liberal Democrats | David Watts | 1,004 | 2.6 | –17.4 | |
| Monster Raving Loony | Nick The Flying Brick | 168 | 0.4 | New | |
| Independent | Andy Hayes | 117 | 0.3 | New | |
| Bus-Pass Elvis | David Bishop | 87 | 0.2 | New | |
| Common Good | Dick Rodgers | 64 | 0.2 | New | |
| Patriotic Socialist Party | Lee Woods | 18 | 0.0 | New | |
| Majority | 7,403 | 19.1 | –12.4 | ||
| Turnout | 38,707 | 52.79 | –19.61 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | –15.5 | |||
The Conservatives retained the seat with a majority of over 7,000 which was described by the BBC as 'a relatively comfortable victory'. [21] While UKIP's performance decreased the Conservative majority the BBC's Alex Forsyth said this was 'not as much as Mr Farage had hoped - or predicted'. [21] Christopher Hope, writing in The Daily Telegraph , argued that 'the scale of the victory is a vindication for the Tory high command which mounted a huge effort to win the seat' and claimed that David Cameron 'had halted the momentum of Ukip'. [22] George Osborne hailed his party's victory and noted that it was the first time the Conservative's had held a seat at a by-election while in government for 25 years. [21] However, both Nigel Farage and Labour's Chris Bryant suggested that the Conservative performance was not particularly impressive. [21] It was suggested by Owen Jones in The Guardian that "Labour and Lib Dem voters clearly voted tactically to keep Ukip out". [23] The poor performance for the Liberal Democrats was described by the BBC as one of 'worst performances in a post-war English by-election' for the party or its predecessors, [21] and by The Telegraph as 'a disaster' for the party. [22]
| Date(s) conducted | Polling organisation/client | Sample size | Con | Lab | LD | UKIP | Others | Lead |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 Jun 2014 | 2014 by-election | 38,707 | 45.0% | 17.7% | 3% | 25.9% | 8% | 19% |
| 2–3 Jun | Survation | 678 | 42% | 22% | 4% | 27% | 5% | 15% |
| 27 May–1 Jun | Lord Ashcroft | 1,000 | 42% | 20% | 6% | 27% | 5% | 15% |
| 27–28 May | Survation/The Sun | 606 | 36% | 27% | 5% | 28% | 5% | 8% |
| 6 May 2010 | 2010 Results (Newark only) | 51,228 | 53.9% | 22.3% | 20.0% | 3.8% | - | 31.5% |
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Patrick Mercer | 27,590 | 53.9 | +3.4 | |
| Labour | Ian Campbell | 11,438 | 22.3 | −6.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | Pauline Jenkins | 10,246 | 20.0 | +1.6 | |
| UKIP | Tom Irvine | 1,954 | 3.8 | +1.0 | |
| Majority | 16,152 | 31.6 | +9.4 | ||
| Turnout | 51,228 | 71.4 | +8.0 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | +4.7 | |||
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