2004 Hartlepool by-election

UK Parliament by-election September 2013 May 2024 2004 Hartlepool by-election parliamentary United Kingdom Hartlepool parliamentary seat no 2001 United Kingdom general election 2001 2005 United Kingdom general election 2005 30 September 2004 45.8% ( 10.0%) Iain Wright 110px Labour Party (UK) 12,752 40.7% 18.5% Jody Dunn 110px Liberal Democrats (UK) 10,719 34.2% 19.2% Stephen Allison UK Independence Party 3,193 10.2% New Jeremy Middleton Conservative Party (UK) 3,044 9.7% 11.1% MP Subsequent MP Peter Mandelson Labour Party (UK) Iain Wright Labour Party (UK) right|thumb|Location of Hartlepool constituency A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Hartlepool was held on 30 September 2004, triggered by the resignation of incumbent Labour Party MP Peter Mandelson, who was nominated as the United Kingdom's new European Commissioner for Trade. It was won by Iain Wright, who held the seat for Labour albeit with a significantly reduced majority. Background Peter Mandelson, the sitting MP, who was nominated as the United Kingdom's new European Commissioner for Trade on 23 July 2004. To take up his new position, he resigned on 8 September by accepting the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, thereby disqualifying himself from Parliament, and causing a by-election. Result Out of a registered electorate of 68,517, there were 31,362 valid votes, making a turnout of 45.77%. This was the highest by-election turnout since the Romsey by-election in May 2000. The Labour Party candidate Iain Wright won the seat with a majority of 2,033, a substantially reduced majority. The Liberal Democrat vote more than doubled, leaving that party a close second. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) held its deposit, and beat the Conservative Party into fourth place. This marked the first time UKIP had come third in a by-election (and followed a successful European election in June 2004, in which countrywide it had come third and won twelve seats). It would be over six years before the party improved on this position, when it took second place at Barnsley Central in 2011. It would go on to win a by-election for the first time a little over a decade after the Hartlepool contest, in Clacton in October 2014. The Conservative vote in Hartlepool dropped considerably, leaving the party in fourth place for the first time in an English by-election since Liverpool Walton in 1991. 2004 Hartlepool by-electionhttp://www.election.demon.co.uk/by2001.html Results of Byelections in the 2001-2005 Parliament Boothroyd David 2015-10-05 United Kingdom Election Results 1 December 2008 https://web.archive.org/web/20081201183331/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/by2001.html dead Labour Party (UK) Iain Wright 12,752 40.7 –18.5 Liberal Democrats (UK) Jody Dunn 10,719 34.2 +19.2 UK Independence Party Stephen Allison 3,193 10.2 N/A Conservative Party (UK) Jeremy Middleton 3,044 9.7 –11.1 RESPECT The Unity Coalition John Bloom 572 1.8 N/A Green Party of England and Wales Iris Ryder 255 0.8 N/A National Front (UK) John Starkey 246 0.8 N/A Independent Paul Watson 139 0.4 N/A Socialist Labour Party (UK) Christopher Herriot 95 0.3 –2.1 The Common Good (political party) Dick Rodgers 91 0.3 N/A Independent (politician) Philip Berriman 90 0.3 N/A Official Monster Raving Loony Party Alan Hope 80 0.3 N/A Independent (Rainbow) Ronnie Carroll 45 0.1 N/A English Democrats Party Ed Abrams 41 0.1 N/A 2,033 6.5 –31.7 31,362 45.8 –10.0 Labour Party (UK) -11.5 Robert Kilroy-Silk of UKIP initially suggested he might stand but later ruled this out, as did Hartlepool and Middlesbrough mayors Stuart Drummond and Ray Mallon. Preceding by-elections had seen the Liberal Democrats come from third place to beat the Conservative Party, and in Brent East and Leicester South take seats from Labour. The seat was safer (judging by the 2001 result) than Leicester but was vulnerable to swings such as achieved in Brent, or in Birmingham Hodge Hill where the Liberal Democrats narrowly failed to win. In the event, the Liberal Democrats were not quite able to repeat these performances. Their campaign suffered from the choice of a candidate who was not from Hartlepool, while the Labour candidate had been born and brought up in the town. In addition, the Liberal Democrat candidate made reference, on a campaign blog, to having canvassed a street where everyone she met "was either drunk, flanked by an angry dog, or undressed"; this happened despite a Liberal Democrat minder, Ed Fordham, having been appointed by the party's Campaigns Department to proof read Dunn's blog before any posts went up. Fordham removed a reference to some of the people canvassed being Labour supporters, but he thought the rest of the comment was fine.Greg Hurst, Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw (Politico's, London, 2006) p.196 Labour gave wide publicity to this remark and asserted that it was an insult to the people of Hartlepool. Dunn defended her remarks on the Today programme, in a performance that was perceived to be unconvincing, so Labour Party vans toured the constituency playing her Today interview on loudspeakers.Greg Hurst, Charles Kennedy: A Tragic Flaw (Politico's, London, 2006) p.197 Hartlepool had no significant ethnic minority vote, unlike the other three by-elections. The Liberal Democrats were nevertheless content to claim the large swing to them, and the Conservatives' fourth place established the Liberal Democrats as the main opposition party to Labour in the seat. UKIP did well with a local candidate, and its message of opposition to European Union fishing rules was a popular one in a port town. The Conservative Party dropped from second place at the 2001 general election to fourth place, its worst place in an English by-election since 1991. Labour believed its performance good, for it came at the end of a very long campaign (effectively seventy-one days), and with a swing markedly smaller than in other seats over the previous year; the party also regarded the result – along with that in Hodge Hill – as a vindication of its decision to aggressively attack the Liberal Democrats and essentially ignore the Conservative challenge. Previous result From the 2001 general election. General election 2001: Hartlepool Labour Party (UK) Peter Mandelson 22,506 59.1 –1.6 Conservative Party (UK) Gus Robinson 7,935 20.9 –0.5 Liberal Democrats (UK) Nigel Boddy 5,717 15.0 +1.0 Socialist Labour Party (UK) Arthur Scargill 912 2.4 N/A Independent (politician) Ian Cameron 557 1.5 N/A Independent (politician) John Booth 424 1.1 N/A 14,571 38.2 -1.2 38,051 55.8 –9.8 Labour Party (UK) See also 2021 Hartlepool by-election References External links Hartlepool by-election leaflets Category:Politics of the Borough of Hartlepool Category:2004 elections in the United Kingdom Category:2004 in England Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Durham constituencies Category:2000s in County Durham Category:Peter Mandelson