Knowsley North by-election, 1986

The Knowsley North by-election, 1986 was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 November 1986 for the British House of Commons constituency of Knowsley North.

Previous MP

The seat had become vacant on 1 October 1986. The constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Robert Kilroy-Silk (born 19 May 1942) resigned his seat to pursue a media career. He did this by being appointed Steward of the Manor of Northstead, a notional offices of profit under the Crown, which is used to permit MPs to vacate their seats.

Kilroy-Silk had been an MP since the February 1974 general election. The constituency he originally represented was Ormskirk. That seat disappeared in a redistribution and Kilroy-Silk moved to the new constituency of Knowsley North in 1983.

He returned to politics in 2004, becoming a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East Midlands.

Candidates

Six candidates were nominated. The list below is set out in descending order of the number of votes received at the by-election.

1. Representing the Labour Party was George Edward Howarth (born 29 June 1949). He was Chief Executive of the Wales Trades Union Congress Centre in Cardiff and had been deputy leader of Knowsley Borough Council 1982-1983.

He has been a Labour member of Parliament since the by-election in 1986, originally for Knowsley North until 1997, and then for its replacement Knowsley North and Sefton East. In June 2008 he continues to represent this seat.

Howarth was a junior minister from 1997 until 2001.

2. The Liberal Party candidate, representing the SDP-Liberal Alliance, was Miss Rosemary Cooper. She had been a member of Liverpool City Council since 1973 and worked as a junior executive at Littlewoods. Miss Cooper had contested the seat of Liverpool Garston in the 1983 general election.

3. The Conservative candidate was Roger Charles Arthur Brown, a barrister born in 1951. He had been a member of Bury Borough Council from 1982 until 1986.

4. David Hallsworth stood for election as a candidate of the Revolutionary Communist Party led by Frank Furedi.

5. George Weiss, a frequent election candidate, was an Independent using the ballot paper label "Rainbow Alliance Captain Rainbows Universal Party".

6. Robert Cory was an Independent candidate.

Votes

Election box candidate with party link
party = Labour Party (UK)
candidate = George Howarth
votes = 17,403
percentage = 56.3
change = -8.2Election box candidate with party link
party = Liberal Party (UK)
candidate = Rosemary Cooper
votes = 10,679
percentage = 34.6
change = +19.8 ^aElection box candidate with party link
party = Conservative Party (UK)
candidate = Roger Brown
votes = 1,960
percentage = 6.3
change = -13.8Election box candidate with party link
party = Revolutionary Communist Party (Furedi)
candidate = David Hallsworth
votes = 664
percentage = 2.1
change = N/AElection box candidate with party link
party = Independent (politics)
candidate = George Weiss
votes = 111
percentage = 0.4
change = N/AElection box candidate with party link
party = Independent (politics)
candidate = Robert Cory
votes = 88
percentage = 0.3
change = N/AElection box majority
votes = 6,724
percentage = 21.7
change = -22.7Election box turnout
votes = 30,905
percentage = 57.3
change = -12.2Election box hold with party link
winner = Labour Party (UK)
swing = Election box Registered electors
reg. electors = 53,921

Note ^a Change is calculated from the SDP candidate who represented the SDP-Liberal Alliance at the 1983 general election.

ee also

* Knowsley North constituency
* List of United Kingdom by-elections
* United Kingdom by-election records

ource

* "Britain Votes/Europe Votes By-Election Supplement 1983-", compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1985)