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Post by yellowperil on May 21, 2023 9:56:27 GMT
If we are talking about the worst mainstream party by-election candidate, then could I nominate Alec Kellaway, the Lib Dem candidate in Newham North East (1994) who defected to Labour a few days before the by-election and in effect removed the Liberal Democrats from the ballot. He still came third even if he wasn't there! |
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Post by therealriga on May 21, 2023 10:13:11 GMT
The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Though I guess in terms of not achieving what he set out to do, Wesley Robert Williamson who stood in 4 of those by-elections, is a contender. He was a unionist who changed his name to "Peter Barry" (same as the Irish foreign minister) and ran as "For the Anglo-Irish Agreement" in order to ensure a by-election took place so that the overall unionist vote could be maximised. Despite doing no campaigning, he saved his deposit in 3 of the 4 seats. Have there been any other candidates who ran deliberately hoping to get as low a vote as possible? |
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Post by swindonlad on May 21, 2023 10:23:44 GMT
IIRC Winchester 1997 wasn’t really a by-election but a rerun anyway. There is no such thing. There is no separate category of “rerun election”. There are general elections and there are byelections. Winchester in 1997 had a general election won by 2 votes and then avoided, followed by a byelection won by 21,556 votes. TBH the Tories could have put the perfect candidate up in that byelection & they would have been slaughtered. Didn't need to worry about the count, telling on the day let you know who had won. Never seen anything like it again, the electorate were not happy with the Tories & were going to teach them a lesson. |
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ColinJ
Labour
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Post by ColinJ on May 21, 2023 10:53:40 GMT
Personally, I would exclude Gerry Malone from the nominations for the worst mainstream by-election candidate.
The Returning Officer's staff, through their acts and omissions, denied Malone victory in Winchester at the general election. He was quite right to bring the petition and was unfairly portrayed as a 'sore loser'. His defeat at the by-election was inevitable given the strength of the anti-Tory tsunami which continued throughout 1997 and into 1998.
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on May 21, 2023 10:55:28 GMT
A good historic example might be Orpington in 1962 - by all accounts the Tory candidate was the classic fish out of water.
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Sibboleth
Labour
'Sit on my finger, sing in my ear, O littleblood.'
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Post by Sibboleth on May 21, 2023 12:12:38 GMT
The canonically correct answer is surely the unfortunate Arthur Griffith-Boscawen. Somewhat different circumstances, but there's also the unfortunate Patrick Gordon-Walker isn't there. |
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The Bishop
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Post by The Bishop on May 21, 2023 12:16:24 GMT
Personally, I would exclude Gerry Malone from the nominations for the worst mainstream by-election candidate. The Returning Officer's staff, through their acts and omissions, denied Malone victory in Winchester at the general election. He was quite right to bring the petition and was unfairly portrayed as a 'sore loser'. His defeat at the by-election was inevitable given the strength of the anti-Tory tsunami which continued throughout 1997 and into 1998. But that wasn't all there was to it, no? In the May election Oaten had in effect been cheated of several votes intended for him by the notorious Richard Huggett, and many locally were well aware of this. |
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Post by islington on May 21, 2023 12:19:40 GMT
Tamsin Dunwoody says hi.
(Note to party organizers: If you're planning an insurgent campaign with a '(wo)man of the people' type of candidate, make sure your nominee isn't the daughter, granddaughter and niece of peers.)
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iain
Lib Dem
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Post by iain on May 21, 2023 12:23:40 GMT
Personally, I would exclude Gerry Malone from the nominations for the worst mainstream by-election candidate. The Returning Officer's staff, through their acts and omissions, denied Malone victory in Winchester at the general election. He was quite right to bring the petition and was unfairly portrayed as a 'sore loser'. His defeat at the by-election was inevitable given the strength of the anti-Tory tsunami which continued throughout 1997 and into 1998. But he was always going to be portrayed as such. He may have been within his rights, but it was a politically stupid thing to do. I believe the Lib Dems thought we could successfully have got NE Fife re-run in 2017, but sensibly decided not to - and now we hold the seat. |
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Post by Davıd Boothroyd on May 21, 2023 12:44:20 GMT
Just musing on which byelection had the worst combination of major party candidates (in other words the terribleness of the major party candidates added together). Lincoln (1973) probably a contender - John Dilks's attempt to show he wasn't completely a creature of the local Labour Party were risible, while the Tories put up "Old Razor Blades" Jonathan Guinness.
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Post by islington on May 21, 2023 12:49:08 GMT
Going farther back, what about John Simon (Spen Valley, Dec 1919)?
He was a carpet-bagging Liberal candidate having lost his seat at Walthamstow in 1918 (the seat was abolished and he had fought and lost the new Walthamstow (E) seat). The Spen Valley byelection is notable because it was won by Labour, a landmark because previously the party had won only seats that were in inner cities or were dominated by mining or heavy industry. It was the first sign that Labour needed to be taken seriously as a truly national force; just over four years later the first Labour government was formed.
Another remarkable feature of the byelection is that although it was fought on 20 Dec 1919, counting did not take place until 3 Jan 1920. It is as well this forum did not exist at that time or I fear some posters might have spontaneously combusted.
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Post by November_Rain on May 21, 2023 12:52:16 GMT
He was chanceless, but Tom Davies from the 2019 Brecon and Radnorshire by- election completely didn't read the room.
Also going off-tangent, that 'Buy The Daily Sport' candidate - was her leaflets just nude pictures of herself?
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Post by johnloony on May 21, 2023 13:16:12 GMT
Gerryb Malone is good shout, although not exactly how I understood the question. The entire DUP and UUP who resigned their seats over the Anglo-Irish agreement are also not how I understand the question. Alex Salmond originally intended to resign his Westminster seat at the 1997 GE to retain his Scotparly seat but changed his mind and swapped places with Stewart Stevenson who became an MSP while Salmond remained an MP. The point I am making is that Sandy Wallace was never a by-election candidate. The correct answer however is Bob Gillespie, Labour, Govan 1988. IIRC Winchester 1997 wasn’t really a by-election but a rerun anyway. No it wasn't a rerun anyway. It was a by-election. |
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Post by johnloony on May 21, 2023 13:21:31 GMT
Personally, I would exclude Gerry Malone from the nominations for the worst mainstream by-election candidate. The Returning Officer's staff, through their acts and omissions, denied Malone victory in Winchester at the general election. He was quite right to bring the petition and was unfairly portrayed as a 'sore loser'. His defeat at the by-election was inevitable given the strength of the anti-Tory tsunami which continued throughout 1997 and into 1998. But that wasn't all there was to it, no? In the May election Oaten had in effect been cheated of several votes intended for him by the notorious Richard Huggett, and many locally were well aware of this. He wasn't cheated of any of those votes. The voters voted for Huggett because they chose to vote for Huggett, not Oaten. If they did so because they were too stupid to bother paying attention to who the candidates were, that's the fault of the voters not the candidates. |
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Post by finsobruce on May 21, 2023 13:40:43 GMT
Can I put in a bid for Tony Cook, SDP candidate for Darlington in 1983? Was probably heading for victory until it became clear what a chump he was. Julian Davidson, Conservative candidate for Newbury, was a dud - I think it was him who claimed a local connection to the seat on the basis of having driven through it quite often. Manuela Sykes was an impressive Liberal byelection candidate in Ipswich turned to a terrible Labour byelection candidate in Uxbridge.Why was she so terrible for Labour in Uxbridge?
Her obituary is worth a read for anyone who has never heard of her before.
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Post by greenhert on May 21, 2023 15:14:23 GMT
Michael Cowan, as mentioned in the "MPs who never were" thread, Labour candidate for Ashfield in its 1977 by-election. Lost one of the safest Labour seats at the time to the Conservatives with a 22% swing against him.
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Post by greenhert on May 21, 2023 15:17:35 GMT
If I recall correctly the Conservative candidate at the Romsey by-election was pretty terrible and arguably a better candidate would have held the seat. Keep in mind that there was also a large tactical vote in favour of the Liberal Democrats by Labour supporters, aided by the fact that Sandra Gidley was Mayor of Romsey at the time which gave her a localist bonus (Tim Palmer, on the other hand, was a county councillor in Dorset at the time and had no connection to Romsey). |
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Post by greenhert on May 21, 2023 15:21:04 GMT
Littleborough & Saddleworth, 1995: Phil Woolas (Labour) might have got elected 2 years earlier than he actually did Winchester 1997: Gerry Malone being a bad loser was arguably why the by-election even happened in the first place Bromley & Chislehurst: Ben Abbotts (LD) was probably the ghastliest main-party candidate I’ve stood against. If he had won, Bob Neill’s career would have been delayed or diverted.Another thought: even when there is a bad candidate, and even when it’s the candidate’s fault that they lost, the consequences in the long term are usually fairly minimal anyway in terms of what would have been different. How was that? Also, he achieved a 13.8% swing against the Conservatives at a time when the Conservatives were recovering and in a seat whose demographics were (and are) not that Lib Dem-friendly. |
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Post by greenhert on May 21, 2023 15:22:21 GMT
Can I put in a bid for Tony Cook, SDP candidate for Darlington in 1983? Was probably heading for victory until it became clear what a chump he was. Julian Davidson, Conservative candidate for Newbury, was a dud - I think it was him who claimed a local connection to the seat on the basis of having driven through it quite often.Manuela Sykes was an impressive Liberal byelection candidate in Ipswich turned to a terrible Labour byelection candidate in Uxbridge. If only this forum had existed in 1993 so we could have put that comment of his in the ASI thread. |
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Post by uthacalthing on May 21, 2023 18:47:26 GMT
Tamsin Dunwoody says hi. (Note to party organizers: If you're planning an insurgent campaign with a '(wo)man of the people' type of candidate, make sure your nominee isn't the daughter, granddaughter and niece of peers.) And don't run a smear campaign on the poshness of the Tory candidate when his family has fostered over a hundred kids and are arguably the best employer in the nation, up to and including giving released criminals a second chance in life. Yes, that I think probably exceeds the innocent ineptitude of Bob Gillespie of Hong Kong. |
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