Tag Archives: edge hill by-election

Caron Lindsay

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.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Le Grice
    I don't understand what the author is asking for here. Drawing attention to the situation on its own won't solve anything. What do we actually want the UK gover...
  • Jamie Dobson
    Thank you, Rose Runswick, for alerting me in the comment above to the Compass organisation and Dr Savage's paper. For me, this provides the bit of the jigsaw t...
  • Ying Perrett
    Thank you for sharing your experience as I am aware of how difficult and painful it xan be. Transnational repression is real and closer to home than one can ima...
  • Graham Evans
    Alex Macfie: Charles Kennedy has become a very troubled man by the time he was deposed as party leader. Had he recognised earlier that his alcoholism had become...
  • Tim Rogers
    Much better from SirEd at PMQs. Topical question getting excellent coverage and sticking the boot in at the same time....