1979 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election
The Liverpool Edge Hill by-election of 1979 was a parliamentary by-election held in England on 29 March 1979 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the House of Commons constituency of Liverpool Edge Hill.
Polling in the by-election took place one day after the government of James Callaghan had lost a vote of no confidence in parliament and slightly over a month before the 1979 general election. The seat had become vacant on the death the previous December of the constituency's Labour Party MP Sir Arthur Irvine, who had held the seat since a by-election in 1947.
The result was a gain for the Liberal Party, represented by David Alton. Having made his maiden speech on 3 April, just before the house rose for the election, he was re-elected a few weeks later and from 1983 held the Mossley Hill seat until he stood down from the commons in 1997, 18 years after the by-election.
Votes
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ± | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal | David Alton | 12,945 | 64.1 | +36.8 | |
Labour | Bob Wareing | 4,812 | 23.8 | −28.1 | |
Conservative | Nicholas Ward | 1,906 | 9.4 | −11.3 | |
Law and Order | Joan Jonker | 337 | 1.7 | N/A | |
Socialist Unity | Ann Walker | 127 | 0.6 | N/A | |
Gay Liberal | Michael Taylor | 40 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident | Bill Boaks | 32 | 0.2 | N/A | |
Majority | 8,133 | 40.3 | |||
Turnout | 20,199 | ||||
Liberal gain from Labour | Swing | 30.2 | |||
See also
- Liverpool Edge Hill (UK Parliament constituency)
- 1947 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election
- List of United Kingdom by-elections
- List of Parliamentary constituencies in Merseyside
References
- "1979 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2015.