1976 Coventry North West by-election

UK parliamentary by-election October 2023 May 2012 1976 Coventry North West by-election parliamentary United Kingdom Constituency of Coventry North West no October 1974 United Kingdom general election Oct. 1974 1979 United Kingdom general election 1979 4 March 1976 Geoffrey Robinson x160px Labour Party (UK) 17,118 47.72% 4.14% Jonathan Guinness Con Conservative Party (UK) 13,424 37.42% 6.08% Alan Leighton Lib Liberal Party (UK) 4,062 11.32% 4.34% MP Maurice Edelman Labour Party (UK) Geoffrey Robinson Labour Party (UK) The 1976 Coventry North West by-election, in Coventry on 4 March 1976, was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Edelman. A safe Labour seat, it was won by Geoffrey Robinson, who retained the seat until 2019. Party performance The by-election represented the first outing for the National Party; it had recently split from the National Front and both parties ran candidates in the election. Although both polled poorly, it set a trend for a split far right vote which was replicated in the 1989 Vauxhall by-election and elsewhere. The Liberal Party vote fell in this by-election, a development that former leader Jo Grimond blamed in part on scandals surrounding incumbent Jeremy Thorpe's homosexuality. Grimond suggested that the result and the allegations meant that Thorpe "must think of stepping down".Michael McManus, Jo Grimond: Towards the Sound of Gunfire, Edinburgh, 2001, p. 325 Thorpe stood down as Liberal leader two months later. Result Coventry North West by-election, 1976http://by-elections.co.uk/76.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120314034528/http://by-elections.co.uk/76.html 1976 By Election Results 2012-03-14 dead 2015-09-17 Labour Party (UK) Geoffrey Robinson 17,118 47.72 -4.14 Conservative Party (UK) Jonathan Guinness 13,424 37.42 +6.08 Liberal Party (UK) Alan Leighton 4,062 11.32 -4.34 National Front (UK) Andrew Fountaine 986 2.75 New National Party (UK, 1976) John Kingsley Read 208 0.60 New Campaign for a More Prosperous Britain Thomas Keen 40 0.11 New Logic Party William Dunmore 33 0.09 New 3,694 10.30 35,871 Labour Party (UK) References Coventry North West by-election Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in West Midlands (county) constituencies Coventry North West by-election Category:Elections in Coventry Category:20th century in Coventry Coventry North West by-election Birmingham