Worst mainstream Party by-election candidate

[Sibboleth]

Aug 15, 2023 13:48:53 GMT batman said:

Hmm, I remember Lindsay Roy as a perfectly respectable candidate. Certainly better than his namesake in Motherwell & Wishaw - sorry carlton43 MOTHERWELL

He was a very good candidate, which of course does not contradict the idea that he was drafted in to prevent a disastrous one being picked.

[heslingtonian]

Aug 15, 2023 6:35:07 GMT @johnyorks said:

Approaching this from a different angle, if no one has nominated him yet (the search result says not) I would put forward a winning candidate for this accolade.
Eric Joyce.

If we're going down the worst human being mainstream by-election candidate road, Cyril Smith must be high on the list.

[bsjmcr]

Perhaps ‘worst’ is a bit unfair, given the thankless task, more ‘borderline joke candidate’ but I remember Daniel Critchlow, the Tory candidate in Wythenshawe and Sale East 2014 being widely panned for only talking about dog poo, litter and potholes in a parliamentary by-election. He was pushed into third by UKIP, so must have struggled even in the ‘Sale East’ component which would have been safely Conservative back in the day.

I believe he was a priest in his 20s (though seemed to look older) from Prestwich/Whitefield, as he later popped up as the candidate for Bury South in 2015, resulting in Ivan Lewis increasing his majority…

[The Bishop]

Aug 15, 2023 8:12:11 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

The raising of the deposit and lowering of the threshold came into effect for any election where the notice of election was published after 1 September 1985 - see Commencement Order. Section 13 of the Act is the relevant provision.

The first parliamentary byelection under the new rules was Tyne Bridge in late 1985 - the Tories would have lost their deposit given the old 12.5% threshold.

[YL]

I think February 2024 has produced a couple of candidates for this title.

[carlton43]

Feb 16, 2024 4:09:40 GMT YL said:

I think February 2024 has produced a couple of candidates for this title.

Rochdale says Hi!

[batman]

it has done so at least 3 times this morning.

[Pete Whitehead]

Dec 10, 2023 11:55:48 GMT bsjmcr said:

Perhaps ‘worst’ is a bit unfair, given the thankless task, more ‘borderline joke candidate’ but I remember Daniel Critchlow, the Tory candidate in Wythenshawe and Sale East 2014 being widely panned for only talking about dog poo, litter and potholes in a parliamentary by-election. He was pushed into third by UKIP, so must have struggled even in the ‘Sale East’ component which would have been safely Conservative back in the day.

I believe he was a priest in his 20s (though seemed to look older) from Prestwich/Whitefield, as he later popped up as the candidate for Bury South in 2015, resulting in Ivan Lewis increasing his majority…

correlation does not imply causation #473

[ricmk]

The Tory campaign in Wellingborough probably as a whole deserves a nomination; not just a candidate selection that was tone deaf to the reasons for the by-election and how Conservative voters felt about it, but one that actually deterred the vast majority of prominent Conservatives from campaigning.

Then the campaign office that was a metaphor for Tory failure, added to the awful record running the Council, very little actually achieved by Bone except Brexit - the state of the centre of Wellingborough is very tired - and no real local angle to the campaign despite incumbency on every level.

Fully deserving of the result they got from what I saw - made it easy for Labour in what should have been a very safe seat.