1977 Ashfield by-election

UK Parliamentary by-election August 2019 August 2019 Ashfield constituency120px120pxAshfield shown within Nottinghamshire, and Nottinghamshire shown within England The 1977 Ashfield by-election was held on 28 April 1977 in the Ashfield constituency in the coal mining area of Nottinghamshire, following the resignation of Labour Member of Parliament David Marquand. Conservative candidate Tim Smith was the narrow winner in what was thought to have been a very safe Labour seat. Marquand had resigned to take up a post at the European Commission in Brussels, as an advisor to the United Kingdom's newly appointed Commissioner Roy Jenkins. His majority at the October 1974 general election had been 22,915 votes,UK general election results, October 1974: Aberavon — Banbury https://web.archive.org/web/20060925034844/http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge74b/i01.htm 25 September 2006 at Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources which made the seat look very safe. There was another by-election held on the same day, in Tony Crosland's nearby former seat of Grimsby which looked much more marginal. Crosland had died on 19 February 1977. The Labour Party directed most of its campaign effort into saving Grimsby, believing Ashfield was in no danger. This strategy succeeded in saving Grimsby, but allowed Tim Smith to win by 264 voteshttp://by-elections.co.uk/77.html https://web.archive.org/web/20131012020902/http://by-elections.co.uk/77.html 1977 By Election Results 2013-10-12 dead 2015-09-17 (after a recount) over Labour's Michael Cowan. The results in both Grimsby and Ashfield were seen as a surprise as they were the opposite of what had been expected. Though both contests saw a swing to the Conservatives, the swing in Grimsby was only 7% as opposed to almost 21% in Ashfield.Parkhouse Geoffrey Sensation at the polls https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19770429&printsec=frontpage&hl=en 21 January 2019 The Glasgow Herald 29 April 1977 1 Labour Cabinet Minister Roy Hattersley was reported to be "almost speechless" at the by election results which were announced at 02:00 the next day, while Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher stated that "This is one of the greatest by-election victories of all time." The Liberal Party lost its deposit in Ashfield as well as in the Grimsby contest, the third time this had happened at by-election following the 1977 Lib-Lab Pact. These results were described as "devastating" for the Liberal leader David Steel. Smith was unable to hold the seat at the 1979 general election, when Labour's Frank Haynes won with a majority of 7,797 votes. He was one of only five Conservative MPs to lose their seats at that election, four of whom had been by-election victors. Smith did however return to Parliament at another by-election three years later in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire (in which his Labour opponent was future Prime Minister Tony Blair) and would serve in that seat for 15 years. He was forced to stand down as an MP in 1997 after the cash for questions scandal. Result United Kingdom Parliament: result of Ashfield by-election, 1977David Wood, Political Editor, 'Tory landslide win at Ashfield overthrows 23,000 Labour majority' in The Times of London, issue 59990 dated April 29, 1977, p. 1 Conservative Party (UK) Tim Smith 19,616 43.1 +20.3 Labour Party (UK) Michael Cowan 19,352 42.5 -20.2 Liberal Party (UK) Hampton Flint 4,380 9.6 -4.7 National Front (UK) George Herrod 1,734 3.8 New Socialist Workers Party (Britain) June Hall 453 1.0 New 264 0.6 N/A 45,535 Conservative Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) +20.8 References Ashfield by-election Ashfield by-election Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Nottinghamshire constituencies Category:1970s in Nottinghamshire Ashfield by-election