Tag Archives: edge hill by-election

40 years ago today: Liberals win Edge Hill by-election

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 29th March 2019 - 1:25 pm

On 29 March 1979, polls opened in the Liverpool Edge Hill by-election less than 9 hours after the bombshell vote of no-confidence in Jim Callaghan’s Labour Government which I wrote about last night.

Whoever was elected could potentially not be MP for very long.

It was Liberal David Alton who grabbed the seat from Labour with a massive 30.2% swing.

He took his seat the next week, made his maiden speech 3 hours later and fought the election on 3 May where he consolidated his win, albeit with a reduced majority.

He remained an MP for the next 18 years. In 1983, the seat’s boundaries changed, making it much more marginal. In 1997, the boundaries changed again, making it the safe Labour seat it has been ever since. Alton stood down at that election.