1962 Orpington by-election

Background

The by-election was caused by the appointment of Donald Sumner, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Orpington, as a county court judge. The appointment was generally thought to be making way for Peter Goldman, who had worked with Iain Macleod on the Conservatives' previous election manifesto. The Conservatives had held the seat since its creation in 1945 and, in the 1959 general election, had easily retained it. Labour and the Liberals had each picked up just over 20% of the vote. Commentators therefore expected Goldman to achieve a comfortable victory.

The Liberal Party had reached its lowest ebb in the 1951 general election, gaining only 2.5% of the national vote and returning only six MPs. Signs of a revival were not seen until it won the 1958 Torrington by-election, its first gain at a by-election since Holland with Boston in 1929. The following year, however, Torrington was lost at the general election and, despite increasing its share of the vote to 5.9%, the party did not return more than six MPs. After the general election, its revival resumed as it took second place in several by-elections.

The Liberals had planned to put forward their candidate from the 1959 election, Jack Galloway, but selected local councillor Eric Lubbock after it was revealed that Galloway had technically been guilty of bigamy.

Campaign

During the campaign, Goldman attracted criticism for living outside the constituency and admitting that he had no plans to move into it. His close association with the Exchequer also meant his standing was damaged when the Conservative government was forced to announce a pay freeze (Selwyn Lloyd's "Pay Pause") for public sector workers that was seen, in particular, to penalise nurses.

The Liberals campaigned as a protest vote against the unpopular local government reorganisation by the Conservative government.

The by-election was held on 14 March 1962. Despite the Conservatives' troubles, the near-22% swing from them to the Liberals surprised most analysts. Lubbock won a 7,855-vote majority and held the seat until 1970.

Impact

The Orpington win immediately boosted the Liberals' poll ratings - from 16% up to 26% in the Gallup Poll. At the borough council elections held eight weeks afterwards, the Liberals won 454 seats in England and Wales, by far their highest score in the 24 years 1949-72; and their second-highest score was 255 in May 1963, as the Orpington result continued to reverberate.

Michael Meadowcroft, the Liberal Party’s former Local Government Officer, wrote of a long held idea for PhD research: ‘What happened to the Liberal councillors elected in May 1962 in the aftermath of the Orpington by-election victory. All over the country, out of nowhere, Liberal candidates found themselves elected.’

Unlike Torrington in 1958, this was a victory by a large margin, and was not in a previously Liberal-supporting region. There was much talk of ‘Orpington man’ '– the semi-mythical figure conjured up by the press at the time to help explain this unlikely suburban revolt.'Membery, Y. (2021). The making of Orpington: British political culture and the strange revival of liberalism 1958-64. [Doctoral Thesis, Maastricht University]. https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/64319761/c7046.pdf accessed 30/01/2025.

However the Liberals were not able to replicate the Orpington victory in the subsequent by-elections of the 1959-64 parliament.

Result

|reg. electors = 53,779

Previous result

|reg. electors = 51,872

References

References

1. (2024). "John Major’s politics of place: a new look at english local government reform, 1990–1997". [[Contemporary British History]].
2. By-elections in British Politics ed. C.Cook & J.Ramsden, UCL Press, 1997.
3. (15 March 1990). "BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1962: Liberals seize Orpington". BBC News.
4. Mark Pack, ''PollBase'', https://www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/ Accessed 28/01/2025.
5. David Butler and Anne Sloman, ''British Political Facts 1900–1979'' (1980), p 403.
6. https://beemeadowcroft.uk/liberalism/liberal-articles/coming-into-focus Accessed 31/01/2025.
7. "1962 By Election Results".