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1993 Newbury by-election

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Field	Value
election_name	1993 Newbury by-election
type	by-election
country	United Kingdom
seats_for_election	The Newbury seat in the House of Commons.
Elected by simple majority using first past the post.
Triggered by death of incumbent
ongoing	no
previous_election	1992 United Kingdom general election
previous_year	1992
next_election	1997 United Kingdom general election
next_year	1997
election_date	6 May 1993
turnout	71.3%
candidate1	David Rendel
image1	[[File:David Rendel - Newbury declaration.jpg	x160px]]
party1	Liberal Democrats (UK)
popular_vote1	37,590
percentage1	65.1%
swing1	27.8%
candidate2	Julian Davidson
image2
party2	Conservative Party (UK)
popular_vote2	15,535
percentage2	26.9%
swing2	29.0%
title	MP
before_election	Judith Chaplin
before_party	Conservative Party (UK)
after_election	David Rendel
after_party	Liberal Democrats (UK)

Elected by simple majority using first past the post. Triggered by death of incumbent The 1993 Newbury by-election was triggered by the death of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Newbury, the Conservative Judith Chaplin. The by-election was held on 6 May 1993, and was won by David Rendel of the Liberal Democrats with a large swing of 28.4%, and well over twice as many votes as the Conservative candidate. As with the overwhelming majority of UK by-elections, turnout was lower than at the general election, falling from 83% to 71%.

Background

The by-election in Newbury was the first by-election of the 1992–1997 parliament, and the first in a string of by-election losses for the Conservative Party who were in their fourth consecutive term of office. Until 1993 the seat had been held by a Conservative MP since 1924.

Candidates

Many independent candidates, or candidates from newly formed or minor parties stood in the by-election, with three candidates standing on an anti-Maastricht Treaty platform. Andrew Bannon, a Labour member from Slough stood as a Conservative Candidate in protest at a Conservative member standing as a Labour Candidate in the 1992 general election in Slough.

All candidates needed since 1985 to win at least 5% of the total votes to retain their deposit, which they must pay to stand for election. Every candidate apart from David Rendel and Julian Davidson lost their deposit, including Labour's Steve Billcliffe.

The by-election achieved a record of 19 candidates, beating the previous high of seventeen at the 1984 Chesterfield by-election. It remained the longest ballot paper in any Parliamentary election until the 2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election.

Result

Rendel served as MP until the 2005 general election, when he was defeated by the Conservative candidate Richard Benyon.

General election result, 1992

This is the result of the 1992 general election in Newbury.

Aftermath

The loss of Newbury marked the beginning of a disastrous run of by-election defeats for John Major's Conservatives, as they went on to lose a further seven contests in seats they had held prior to the next general election in 1997. The result was later described by The Herald as "a major embarrassment for the Major Government", while Tim Farron would remember it as being "inspirational" for the Liberal Democrats.

As of 2024, the 37,590 votes received by Rendel is the highest number of votes received by an individual candidate for the Liberal Democrats in a Westminster election.

References

Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1992-97 Parliament".
(7 December 2012). "Analysis: Do by-elections mean anything?". BBC News.
(28 May 2016). "Obituary - David Rendel, MP who won stunning victory for Lib Dems". The Herald.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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