1999 Eddisbury by-election

The Eddisbury by-election, 1999 was a parliamentary by-election held on 22 July 1999 for the British House of Commons constituency of Eddisbury in Cheshire.

1999 Eddisbury by-election
22 July 1999
  First party Second party Third party
 
Candidate Stephen O'Brien Margaret Hanson Paul Roberts
Party Conservative Labour Liberal Democrats
Popular vote 15,465 13,859 4,757
Percentage 44.8% 40.2% 13.8%
Swing 2.3pp 0.1pp 0.6pp
MP before election

Alastair Goodlad
Conservative

 Elected MP

Stephen O'Brien
Conservative

On 25 May 1999 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced the appointment of Eddisbury's Member of Parliament (MP), the Rt. Hon. Sir Alastair Goodlad, as High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia. This created a vacancy in the seat which Sir Alastair had retained as the Conservative candidate in the 1997 general election. Sir Alastair resigned from the House of Commons by accepting the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern on 28 June 1999 to formally vacate his seat.

Candidates

The Conservatives selected Stephen O'Brien, a former SDP member who lived in Chichester, to defend the seat. Labour nominated Margaret Hanson, wife of David Hanson (Labour MP for Delyn), who had also fought the seat at the 1997 election. Labour had been only just over 1,000 votes behind the Conservatives in 1997 and ran an energetic campaign, raising the issue of fox hunting which she pledged to ban. Prime Minister Tony Blair went to the constituency to campaign for her, an unusual move as it is convention for incumbent Prime Ministers not to visit byelection campaigns.

Polling day was 22 July and the result was a virtual carbon copy of that in 1997; each party had fought to a standstill.

Results
Eddisbury by-election, 1999[1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Stephen O'Brien 15,465 44.8 +2.3
Labour Margaret Hanson 13,859 40.2 +0.1
Liberal Democrats Paul Roberts 4,757 13.8 +0.6
Monster Raving Loony Alan Hope 238 0.7 New
Ind. Conservative Roger Everest 98 0.3 New
Natural Law Dinah Grice 80 0.2 New
Majority 1,606 4.6 +2.2
Turnout 34,497 51.4 -24.4
Conservative hold Swing
General election 1997: Eddisbury
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative Alastair Goodlad 21,027 42.5
Labour Margaret Hanson 19,842 40.1
Liberal Democrats David Reaper 6,540 13.2
Referendum Norine Napier 2,041 4.2
Majority 1,185 2.4
Turnout 49,450 75.8
Conservative hold Swing

See also

References
  1. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1997-2002 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
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