1988 Kensington by-election

The Kensington by-election, in Kensington, on 14 July 1988 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Brandon Rhys-Williams. Normally a relatively safe Conservative seat, it was narrowly won by Dudley Fishburn, who would retain the seat in 1992.

It was the first by-election of that parliament, which had begun after the general election of June 1987, and would last until the next election in April 1992.

Candidates
  • John Connell was a peace advocate who opposed what he saw as manipulation of the news by ITN.[1]
  • John Crowley described himself as an 'Anti Yuppie Revolutionary Crowleyist, Vegetarian Visionary'.[1]
  • John Duignan was a supporter of the Class War organisation.[1]
  • Roy Edey called for equal redistribution of wealth and a policy of social housing construction.[1]
  • Dudley Fishburn was a former editor of The Economist.[2]
  • William Goodhart was a leading human rights lawyer who has since taken a seat in the House of Lords.[3]
  • Brian Goodier described himself as an 'Anti-Left Wing Fascist'.[1]
  • Phylip Hobson was the Green Party candidate.
  • Ann Holmes was again a candidate for this seat in the 1992 general election.[4] and subsequently became a councillor in the City of London.[5]
  • John Martin was a candidate for the dissident wing of the SDP that had rejected membership of the Social and Liberal Democrats.
  • Thomas McDermott was the founder of the Free Trade Liberal Party and campaigned on a platform of the UK leaving the European Community.[1]
  • Cynthia Payne, who had been convicted of controlling a brothel, ran under the 'Rainbow Alliance Payne and Pleasure Party' banner.[1]
  • William Scola represented his own 'Leveller Party'.[1]
  • Screaming Lord Sutch was the leader and founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
  • Kailash Trivedi ran as candidate for the 'Janata Party' (Peoples Party in Hindi and the name of a former governing party in India), his own creation.[1]

Results
1988 Kensington by-election[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Dudley Fishburn 9,829 41.59 −5.9
Labour Patricia Holmes 9,014 38.14 +4.9
SLD William Goodhart 2,546 10.77 −6.5
SDP (1988) John Martin 1,190 5.04 N/A
Green Phylip Hobson 572 2.42 +0.7
Rainbow Alliance – Payne & Pleasure Cynthia Payne 193 0.82 N/A
Monster Raving Loony Screaming Lord Sutch 61 0.26 N/A
London Class War Candidate John Duignan 60 0.25 N/A
Anti Left-Wing Fascist Brian Goodier 31 0.13 N/A
Free Trade Liberal – Europe Out! Thomas McDermott 31 0.13 N/A
Fair Wealth & Health Roy Edey 30 0.13 N/A
Leveller Party William Scola 27 0.11 N/A
Anti-Yuppie John Crowley 24 0.10 N/A
Peace – Stop ITN Manipulation John Connell 20 0.08 N/A
Independent Janata Party Kailash Trivedi 5 0.02 N/A
Majority 815 3.40 -10.86
Turnout 23,633 51.6 -13.1
Registered electors 45,830
Conservative hold Swing -5.40

The results for the previous election were:

General election 1987: Kensington[6]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
Conservative Brandon Rhys-Williams 14,818 47.5 +1.5
Labour Benjamin Bousquet 10,371 33.3 +3.8
SDP William Goodhart 5,379 17.2 −4.9
Green Roger Shorter 528 1.7 −0.4
Humanist Lana Carrick 65 0.2 N/A
Public Independent Plaintiff Party Muriel Hughes 30 0.1 N/A
Majority 4,447 14.26 -2.14
Turnout 31,191 64.7 +2.4
Registered electors 48,212
Conservative hold Swing
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References
  1. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1983-87 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
  2. Dudley Fishburn
  3. "Lord William Goodhart". Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  4. Ann Holmes
  5. Ann Holmes, Farringdon Within
  6. "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
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