Romsey by-election, 2000

The Romsey constituency in Hampshire

Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Colvin and his wife died in a fire at their home on 24 February 2000. This created a by-election in his constituency of Romsey in Hampshire, England.

The Conservative Party decided to delay the polling day until 4 May, so that it would come simultaneously with local elections. They selected Tim Palmer, a farmer and Dorset County Councillor, to defend the seat. The Liberal Democrats considered this byelection their best chance of gaining a seat since 1997 and selected a local pharmacist Sandra Gidley (who had been Mayor of Romsey) as their candidate.

Labour carried out minimal campaigning in a constituency in which they had come third. This led many observers to assume that the party was expecting, or hoping, that its vote would largely go to the Liberal Democrats in order to help defeat the Conservatives. In the event, the Labour vote collapsed while the Liberal Democrats surged, and they made this the only mainland by-election to result in a change of party control in the entire Parliament.

Results

By-election 2000: Romsey^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Liberal Democrat	Sandra Gidley	19,571	50.6	+21.2
	Conservative	Tim Palmer	16,260	42.0	−4.0
	Labour	Andy Howard	1,451	3.7	−14.9
	UKIP	Garry Rankin-Moore	901	2.3	−1.2
	Legalise Cannabis	Derrick Large	417	1.1	+1.1
	Independent	Thomas Lamont	109	0.3	+0.3
Majority			3,311	8.6
Turnout				55.4
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing	8.6

General Election result, 1997

General Election 1997: Romsey
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	Michael Colvin	23,834	46.0
	Liberal Democrat	Mark Cooper	15,249	29.4
	Labour	Joanne Ford	9,623	18.6
	UKIP	Alan Sked	1,824	3.5
	Referendum	Michael Wigley	1,291	2.5
Majority			8,585	16.57
Turnout				76.36

References

↑ Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1997-2002 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Retrieved 2015-10-05.

External links

Campaign literature from the by-election

« 51st Parliament « By-elections to the 52nd Parliament of the United Kingdom » 53rd Parliament »

1997	July: Uxbridge November: Beckenham Paisley South Winchester

1999	June: Leeds Central July: Eddisbury August: Hamilton South September: Wigan November: Kensington and Chelsea

2000	February: Ceredigion May: Romsey June: Tottenham September: South Antrim November: Glasgow Anniesland Preston West Bromwich West December: Falkirk West

Lists of UK by-elections 1801–1806 1806–1818 1818–1832 1832–1847 1847–1857 1857–1868 1868–1885 1885–1900 1900–1918 1918–1931 1931–1950 1950–1979 1979–2010 2010–present

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.