1962 Orpington by-election

1962 by-election in Orpington constituency October 2025 September 2020 February 2026 1962 03 14 y Eric Lubbock Liberal Party (UK) Peter Goldman Conservative Party (UK) Alan Jinkinson Labour Party (UK) Lord-Avebury-2006.jpg 22,846 52.9% 31.7 21.9 9.8 5,350 14,991 34.7% 12.4% 43,187 80.3% (2.5 pp) Conservative Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) by-election Donald Sumner Conservative Party (UK) MP Eric Lubbock Liberal Party (UK) Orpington constituency 1959 United Kingdom general election 1959 1964 United Kingdom general election 1964 53,779 The 1962 Orpington by-election was held on 14 March 1962 to elect a Member of Parliament for the constituency of Orpington in south east London. The by-election resulted in the Liberal Party gaining the seat from the Conservative Party with a 31 point swing, and is often described as the start of the revival of the Liberal Party. 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.Alexander Hutton John Major’s politics of place: a new look at english local government reform, 1990–1997 Contemporary British History 2024 38 4 543-564 10.1080/13619462.2024.2410550 The by-election was held on 14 March 1962.By-elections in British Politics ed. C.Cook & J.Ramsden, UCL Press, 1997. Despite the Conservatives' troubles, the near-22% swing from them to the Liberals surprised most analysts. Lubbock won a 7,855-vote majorityhttps://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/15/newsid_2543000/2543507.stm BBC ON THIS DAY | 15 | 1962: Liberals seize Orpington BBC News 15 March 1990 9 January 2011 and held the seat until 1970. Impact The Orpington win immediately boosted the Liberals' poll ratings, rising from 16% up to 26% in the Gallup Poll.Mark Pack PollBase https://www.markpack.org.uk/opinion-polls/ 28 January 2025 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 1949–1972; and their second-highest score was 255 in May 1963, as the Orpington result continued to reverberate.David Butler Anne Sloman British Political Facts 1900–1979 1980 403 Michael Meadowcroft, the Liberal Party's Local Government Officer between 1962 and 1967,Was he in this post at the time or only later? Unclear from his article February 2026 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."https://beemeadowcroft.uk/liberalism/liberal-articles/coming-into-focus Coming into Focus Michael Meadowcroft 27 February 2026 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", described by York Membery in his 2021 doctoral thesis as "the semi-mythical figure conjured up by the press at the time to help explain this unlikely suburban revolt against a governing party which had long considered the constituency on the fringes of London a safe seat."February 2026Membery Y. 2021 The making of Orpington: British political culture and the strange revival of liberalism 1958–64 doctoral Maastricht University https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/64319761/c7046.pdf 30 January 2025 However, the Liberals were not able to replicate the Orpington victory in the subsequent by-elections of the 1959–1964 parliament. Result Orpington by-election, 1962http://by-elections.co.uk/62.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120205100601/http://by-elections.co.uk/62.html 1962 By Election Results 2012-02-05 dead 2015-08-15 Liberal Party (UK) Eric Lubbock 22,846 52.9 +31.7 Conservative Party (UK) Peter Goldman 14,991 34.7 -21.9 Labour Party (UK) Alan Jinkinson 5,350 12.4 -9.8 7,855 18.2 N/A 43,187 80.3 -2.5 53,779 Liberal Party (UK) Conservative Party (UK) +26.3 Previous result General election 1959: Orpington Conservative Party (UK) Donald Sumner 24,303 56.6 -3.3 Labour Party (UK) Norman John Hart 9,543 22.2 -5.4 Liberal Party (UK) Jack Omar Galloway 9,092 21.2 +8.7 14,760 34.4 +1.1 42,938 82.8 +3.4 51,872 Conservative Party (UK) +0.6 References External links British Parliamentary By Elections: Liberal Party campaign literature from the by-election Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources Lubbock Eric Fighting Orpington Liberal Democrat History Group Newsletter March 1997 14 https://liberalhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/14_lubbock_fighting_orpington.pdf You lucky people https://www.thetimes.com/article/you-lucky-people-ldwzz2j5vd8 subscription 8 September 2019 The Times 26 June 2004 live https://web.archive.org/web/20070311051947/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article450124.ece 11 March 2007 Richards Steve Steve Richards Triumphs and Disasters https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/the_westminster_hour/4075021.stm 8 September 2019 BBC News Online 2 November 2005 Orpington,1962 Orpington,1962 Orpington by-election Orpington by-election Orpington,1962 Category:1960s in Kent Category:Orpington