Retreads Since 1945

[mick745]

I believe this is now a complete list of Parliamentary Re-Treads since the 1945 General Election.  I know that the Forum is frequented by some people that find electoral data of interest.  I find it of interest anyway, I hope others do too.  I would be grateful to hear from anyone with corrections, additions or suggestions.

A retread is a Member of Parliament who has returned to the House after a time away.  This has happened 303 times since the war.  I have not included instances where members have resigned seats and won immediately the resulting by-election in the same seat.  The only post-war example of someone leaving and then returning during the same Parliament was Tony Benn in 1959-1964.

Those who re-treaded twice were: Michael Ancram, Frank Soskice (who won 2 by-elections), Arthur Palmer, Fergus Montgomery, William McCrea, Alec Douglas-Home, Tony Benn, 

2015 GE (5) - Dawn Butler (Brent Central); Boris Johnson (Uxbridge & Ruislip South
); Rob Marris (Wolverhampton SW); Joan Ryan (Enfield North); Alex Salmond (Gordon).

2010-2015 BE's (1) - George Galloway (Bradford West).

2010 GE (5) - John Cryer (Leyton & Wanstead); Geraint
Davies (Swansea West); Jonathan Evans (Cardiff North); Christopher Leslie (Nottingham East); Stephen Twigg (Liverpool West Derby).

2005 GE (4) - David Evennett (Bexleyheath & Crayford
); Christopher Fraser (Norfolk SW); William McCrea (Antrim South); Malcolm Rifkind (Kensington & Chelsea
).

2001 GE (7) - Henry Bellingham (Norfolk NW); Alistair
Burt (Bedfordshire NE); Derek Conway (Old Bexley & Sidcup); Charles Hendry (Wealden); Greg Knight (Yorkshire East); Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield); Bob Spink (Castle Point);

1997-2001 BE's - (3) Jacqui Lait (Beckenham); William McCrea (Antrim South); Michael Portillo (Kensington & Chelsea);

1997 GE (17) - Gerry Adams (Belfast West); Christopher Chope (Christchurch); Alan Clark (Kensington & Chelsea); Frank Doran (Aberdeen Central); Huw Edwards (Monmouth); Michael Fallon (Sevenoaks); Ronnie Fearn (Southport); Mike Hancock (Portsmouth South); Sylvia Heal (Halesowen & Rowley Regis); Gerald Howarth (Aldershot); Ashok
Kumar (Middlesbrough South & Cleveland East);  
Richard Livsey (Brecon & Radnorshire ); Humfrey Malins (Woking); John Maples (Stratford-on-Avon); Francis Maude (Horsham); Jonathan Sayeed (Bedfordshire Mid); John Smith (Vale of Glamorgan);

1992 GE (13) - Michael Ancram (Devizes); Bryan Davies (Oldham Central and Royton
); Warren Hawksley (Halesowen and Stourbridge
); John Horam (Orpington); Gerry Malone (Winchester); Piers Merchant (Beckenham); Richard Ottaway (Croydon South); Nick Raysford (Greenwich); Mark Robinson (Somerton & Frome); John Spellar (Warley West); Derek Spencer (Brighton Pavilion); Iain Sprout (Harwich); Paul Tyler (Cornwall North).

1987-1992 BE's - (2) Stephen Norris (Epping Forest); Jim Sillars (Glasgow Govan).

1987 GE (9) - Bob Cryer (Bradford South); Margaret Ewing (Moray); John Garrett (Norwich South); Bruce Grocott (The Wrekin); Joan Lester (Eccles); Jim Marshall (Leicester South); Ann Taylor (Dewsbury); Andrew Welsh (Angus East); Audrey Wise (Preston).

1983-1987 BE's (1) - Tony Benn (Chesterfield).

1983 GE (7) - Margaret Beckett (Derby South); Robin Corbett (Birmingham Erdington); Bryan Gould (Dagenham); Edward Loyden (Liverpool Garston); Andrew MacKay (Berkshire East); Max Madden (Bradford West); Brian Sedgemore (Hackney South & Shoreditch ).

1979-1983 BE's (6) - Doug Hoyle (Warrington); Roy Jenkins (Glasgow Hillhead); Richard Page (Hertfordshire SW); Tim Smith (Beaconsfield); Teddy Taylor (Southend East); Shirley Williams (Crosby).

1979 GE (14) - Michael Ancram (Edinburgh South); Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet); David Clark (South Shields); Eric Cockeram
(Ludlow); Ednyfed Hudson
Davies (Caerphilly ); Terry Davis (Birmingham Stechford); Dick Douglas (Dunfermline); Peggy Fenner (Rochester & Chatham); Peter Griffiths (Portsmouth North); John Gummer (Eye); Barry Henderson (Fife East); James Hill (Southampton Test); John Wilkinson (Ruislip Northwood); David Winnick (Walsall North).

1974O-1979 BE's (4) - Jock Bruce-Gardyne
(Knutsford); Donald Dewar (Glasgow, Garscadden
); Alan Haselhurst (Saffron Walden); David Waddington (Clitheroe).

1974O GE (10) - Donald Anderson (Swansea East); Jeremy Bray (Motherwell & Wishaw); Gwynfor
Evans (Carmarthen
); Robert Hicks (Bodmin); Evan Luard (Oxford); John Mackintosh (Berwick and East Lothian
); Fergus Montgomery (Altrincham & Sale
); Enoch Powell (Down South); Nicholas Scott (Chelsea); Keith Speed (Ashford).

1974F-1974O BE's (1) - Nigel Spearing (Newham South).

1974F GE (20) - Ronald Atkins (Preston North); Gwyneth
Dunwoody (Crewe); John Ellis (Brigg and Scunthorpe); David Ennals (Norwich North); Ioan
Evans (Aberdare); Winifred
Ewing (Moray & Nairn); Gerald Fowler (The Wrekin); Frank Hooley (Sheffield Heeley); Sydney Irving
(Dartford
); Colin Jackson
(Brighouse and Spenborough
); John Lee
(Birmingham Handsworth
); Eric Moonman (Basildon);
Stanley Newens
(Harlow); Christopher Price
(Lewisham West); Gwilym Roberts
(Cannock); Arnold Shaw
(Ilford South); Frederick Silvester
(Manchester Withington
); Richard Wainwright
(Colne Valley
); Alan Lee Williams
(Hornchurch); Michael Winstanley
(Hazel Grove).

1970-1974F BE's (5) - Kenneth Baker (St Marylebone); Guy Barnett (Greenwich); Bob Mitchell (Southampton Itchen); Gordon Oakes
(Widnes); Ted Rowlands
(Merthyr Tydfil).

1970 GE (21) - William Clark (Surrey East);
Albert Cooper (Ilford South
); Julian Critchley (Aldershot
); Charles Curran (Uxbridge); Patrick Duffy (Sheffield Attercliffe
); Anthony Fell (Yarmouth
); Edward Gardner (Fylde South
); Alan Glyn (Windsor
); Alan Green (Preston South
); Patricia Hornsby-Smith (Chislehurst
); Geoffrey Howe (Reigate
); David James (Dorset, North
); James Kilfedder (Down North
); Martin McLaren (Bristol North West
); Anthony Meyer (Flint West
); Wilfred Proudfoot (Brighouse and Spenborough
); Trevor Skeet (Bedford
); Peter Thomas (Hendon, South
); Richard Thompson (Croydon South
); David Walder (Clitheroe
); Montague Woodhouse (Oxford
).

1966-1970 BE's (7) - Julian Amery (Brighton Pavilion);
Christopher Chataway (Chichester);
Peter Emery (Honiton
); Patrick McNair-Wilson (New Forest);
Fergus Montgomery (Brierley Hill);
James Scott-Hopkins (Derbyshire West
); Dudley Smith (Warwick and Leamington
).

1966 GE (9) - Richard Body (Holland-with-Boston
); Patrick Gordon Walker (Leyton);
Philip Holland (Carlton
); Maurice MacMillan (Farnham
); Gerald Nabarro (Worcestershire South
); Geoffrey Rippon (Hexham
); Michael Shaw (Scarborough and Whitby
); Peter Tapsell (Horncastle
); Marcus Worsley (Chelsea
).

1964-1966 BE's (5) - Anthony Barber (Altrincham and Sale
); Michael Hamilton (Salisbury
); Geoffrey Johnson Smith (East Grinstead
); Peter Kirk (Saffron Walden
); Martin Maddan (Hove
).

1964 GE (10) - Arthur Blenkinsop (South Shields); Geoffrey de Freitas (Kettering
); Douglas Dodds-Parker (Cheltenham
); Lena Jeger (Holborn and St Pancras South
); James Johnson (Hull West
); Evelyn King (Dorset South
); Ian Mikardo (Poplar
); Maurice Orbach (Stockport South);
Arthur Palmer (Bristol Central
); George Wallace (Norwich North
).

1959-1964 BE's (10) - Tony Benn (Bristol South-East
); Arthur Bottomley (Middlesbrough East
); Aidan Crawley (Derbyshire West
); Alec Douglas-Home (Kinross and West Perthshire
); Michael Foot (Ebbw Vale
); Quintin Hogg (St Marylebone
); Denis Howell (Birmingham Small Heath
); Niall MacDermot (Derby North
); Angus Maude (Stratford-on-Avon
); Thomas Williams (Warrington
).

1959 GE (7) - Denys Bullard (Norfolk South-West
); Anthony Crosland (Grimsby
); Tom Driberg (Barking
); Ray Gunter (Southwark
); Archie Manuel (Ayrshire Central
); Roy Wise (Rugby
); Woodrow Wyatt (Bosworth
).

1955-1959 BE's (6) - Frederic Bennett (Torquay);
Jack Diamond (Gloucester
); Dingle Foot (Ipswich
); Megan Lloyd George (Carmarthen
); Harry Randall (Gateshead West
); Frank Soskice (Newport
).

1955 GE (5) - Peter Agnew (Worcestershire, South
); Sidney Dye (Norfolk South West
); Robert Grant-Ferris (Nantwich
); Francis Edward Noel-Baker (Swindon
); Konni Zilliacus (Manchester Gorton
).

1951-1955 BE's (8) - Victor Collins (Shoreditch and Finsbury
); Eric Errington (Aldershot); Arthur Creech Jones (Wakefield
); Arthur Palmer (Cleveland
); Ben Parkin (Paddington North
); Arthur Skeffington (Hayes and Harlington);
William Warbey (Broxtowe
); George Willis (Edinburgh East
).

1951 GE (12) - William Anstruther-Gray (Berwick and East Lothian
); William Astor (Wycombe
); John Barlow (Middleton and Prestwich
); Jack Beattie (Belfast, West
); Robert Cary (Manchester Withington
); Fergus Graham (Darlington
); Ian MacDonald Horobin (Oldham East
); Gwilym Lloyd George (Newcastle upon Tyne North
); Frank Markham (Buckingham
); Richard Pilkington (Poole
); Stephen Swingler (Newcastle-under-Lyme
); William Richard Williams (Droylsden).


1950-1951 BE's (8) - Albert Braithwaite (Harrow West
); Lewis John Edwards (Brighouse and Spenborough
); James Hutchison (Glasgow Scotstoun);
Christopher Mayhew (Woolwich East);
Arthur Salter (Ormskirk);
Frank Soskice (Sheffield Neepsend
); Thomas Steele (Dunbartonshire West
); Lynn Ungoed-Thomas (Leicester North East
).

1950 GE (28) - Ronald Bell (Buckinghamshire South
); Fenner Brockway (Eton and Slough
); Henry Brooke (Hampstead
); Arthur Colegate (Burton);
Ronald Cross (Ormskirk
); Frederick Cundiff (Manchester Withington
); Somerset de Chair (Paddington South
); Alec Douglas-Home (Lanark
); James Duncan (Angus South
); John Grimston (St Albans
); Cahir Healy (Fermanagh and South Tyrone
); 
Florence Horsbrugh (Manchester Moss Side
); Austin Hudson (Lewisham North
); Moelwyn Hughes (Islington North
); Geoffrey Hutchinson (Ilford North
); Hamilton Kerr (Cambridge
); Geoffrey Lloyd (Birmingham Ladywood
); John Cutts Lockwood (Romford
); Walter Perkins (Stroud and Thornbury
); John Profumo (Stratford-on-Avon
); Duncan Sandys (Streatham
); Donald Scott (Penrith and the Border
); Patrick  Spens (Kensington South
); Samuel Storey (Stretford
); Spencer Summers (Aylesbury
); Irene Ward (Tynemouth
); Charles Waterhouse (Leicester South East
); Herbert  Williams (Croydon East
).

1945-1950 BE's (10) - Richard Acland (Gravesend
); Ralph Assheton (City of London
); Brendan  Bracken (Bournemouth
); Walter Elliot (Combined Scottish Universities
); Richard Law (Kensington South
); Harold Macmillan (Bromley
); Lance Mallalieu (Brigg
); Malcolm  McCorquodale (Epsom
); Henry Strauss (Combined English Universities
); Peter Thorneycroft (Monmouth
).

1945 GE (23) - Joseph Alpass (Thornbury
); Walter Ayles (Southall
); Oliver  Baldwin (Paisley
); Peter Freeman (Newport
); Clifford  Glossop (Howdenshire
); Somerville Hastings (Barking
); James Hindle Hudson (Ealing West
); Barnett Janner (Leicester West
); John Kinley (Bootle
); Gordon  Lang (Stalybridge and Hyde
); Jennie Lee (Cannock
); Tommy Lewis (Southampton
); Fred Longden (Birmingham Deritend
); Hugh Lucas-Tooth (Hendon South
); Leah Manning (Epping
); Ralph Morley (Southampton
); Rhys Hopkin Morris (Carmarthen
); Lucy Noel-Buxton (Norwich
); Charles Simmons (Birmingham West
); Thomas William Stamford (Leeds West
); Evelyn John Strachey (Dundee
); Moss Turner-Samuels (Gloucester
); Harry Wallace (Walthamstow East
).

[greatkingrat]

I wonder if William McCrea will stand again in 2020 and possibly become the first ever triple retread?

[mick745]

Feb 15, 2016 22:27:06 GMT greatkingrat said:

I wonder if William McCrea will stand again in 2020 and possibly become the first ever triple retread?

Sadly he wouldn't be the first ever, as amongst others, the former Labour Leader Arthur Henderson retreaded 4 times, although the last of these was in 1933.  I am hoping to continue the list backwards to 1918 in due course.

[Deleted]

Retreading is fairly commonplace.

Perhaps rarer (although increasingly less so in recent years) are MPs who only served one term or less and never attempted to become retreads - such as Tess Kingham and Louise Mensch for example. There were a few in the 2010 intake who stood down voluntarily in 2015 and I would be surprised if any of them will reverse their decision in 2020.

[mick745]

Feb 15, 2016 22:41:07 GMT swanarcadian said:

Retreading is fairly commonplace.

Perhaps rarer (although increasingly less so in recent years) are MPs who only served one term or less and never attempted to become retreads - such as Tess Kingham and Louise Mensch for example. There were a few in the 2010 intake who stood down voluntarily in 2015 and I would be surprised if any of them will reverse their decision in 2020.

I think there were 8 MPs who stood down in 2015 having only served one term.  Retreading is also getting rarer, I suppose if elections are held close together there is more opportunity but compared with the 1920s and 1930s it is now very rare indeed.  I have turned up 81 retreads at 1935 so far, 77 in 1924 and 66 in 1929.  The last time we had double figures was in 1997, and that was only one of two examples since the 1970s.

[carlton43]

1992 GE It is Nick Raynsford and Ian Sproat.

[The Bishop]

Chris Williamson has only tried once so far, tbf (I don't doubt he will add to that tally, however)

I think it is notable that many successful retreads in recent years have some connection with their "new" seat as well.

[Deleted]

Arthur Palmer was MP in Bristol NE when I first moved to Bristol in the late 1970s. I was always amazed he had managed to be an MP in suburban London, then Teeside, then Bristol.

.. & when we hear from some about how the Blairites had taken Labour to the 'right' in the 90s & 00s & have some rose tinted view of pre-Blair 'left' Labour ... they had never met Palmer....

[carlton43]

Feb 16, 2016 13:55:02 GMT @robin said:

Arthur Palmer was MP in Bristol NE when I first moved to Bristol in the late 1970s. I was always amazed he had managed to be an MP in suburban London, then Teeside, then Bristol.

.. & when we hear from some about how the Blairites had taken Labour to the 'right' in the 90s & 00s & have some rose tinted view of pre-Blair 'left' Labour ... they had never met Palmer....

Or Neville Sandelson, Desmond Donnelly, Woodrow Wyatt, Tom Driberg, and so many others.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

And Albert Roberts, Lt Col Richard Crawshaw, Reginald Paget ...

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Paget was a foxhunter and supported the death penalty (although he recognised the judicial system made mistakes - he was a barrister). There was an interesting detail in Cecil Parkinson's obituaries about when Parkinson stood in Northampton against Paget in 1970, and at a hustings meeting Paget started by saying "You will find that Mr Parkinson and I disagree about very little, but we do disagree about one thing – Mr Parkinson dislikes Mr Wilson, the Prime Minister. I hate him."

Richard Crawshaw, who was MP for Liverpool Toxteth, was a Lt Col in the Territorial Army and once voted against the defence estimates because they didn't spend enough on the TA.

Albert Roberts was great mates with Franco and was also on John Poulson's payroll.

[john07]

George Galloway retreaded twice He was MP for Glasgow Hillhead and then Kelvin from 1987 to 2005. Then Bethnall Green and Bow from 2005-10. Finally there was Bradford West 2012 - 2015.

[Davıd Boothroyd]

His service wasn't interrupted in 2005 - he just changed constituencies at the general election.

[Khunanup]

Feb 16, 2016 17:32:07 GMT Davıd Boothroyd said:

His service wasn't interrupted in 2005 - he just changed constituencies at the general election.

Agreed. He's one of the few retreads who was also a chicken-runner!

[No Offence Alan]

Is Alex Salmond the only one to re-tread in two parliaments/assemblies?

[Davıd Boothroyd]

Lord Hailsham and Alec Douglas-Home were retreads to the House of Lords (there were also a few in the early byelections after 1999).

[The Bishop]

Feb 16, 2016 14:01:37 GMT carlton43 said:

Feb 16, 2016 13:55:02 GMT @robin said:

Arthur Palmer was MP in Bristol NE when I first moved to Bristol in the late 1970s. I was always amazed he had managed to be an MP in suburban London, then Teeside, then Bristol.

.. & when we hear from some about how the Blairites had taken Labour to the 'right' in the 90s & 00s & have some rose tinted view of pre-Blair 'left' Labour ... they had never met Palmer....

Or Neville Sandelson, Desmond Donnelly, Woodrow Wyatt, Tom Driberg, and so many others.

Three of those four left the party, of course.

Driberg's personal life was outrageous (and it remains a minor miracle he escaped disgrace during his lifetime) but he tended to the left politically speaking.

[finsobruce]

Feb 17, 2016 11:11:19 GMT The Bishop said:

Feb 16, 2016 14:01:37 GMT carlton43 said:

Or Neville Sandelson, Desmond Donnelly, Woodrow Wyatt, Tom Driberg, and so many others.

Three of those four left the party, of course.

Driberg's personal life was outrageous (and it remains a minor miracle he escaped disgrace during his lifetime) but he tended to the left politically speaking.

Sandelson eventually made his way back and Donnelly er, committed suicide.

Wyatt leads me to thinking about how many of the candidates who had been selected for the putative election in 1940 didn't appear in 1945 and quite often their place was taken candidates straight from the various services, some of whom I suspect didn't have very longstanding party connections.

[Deleted]

Feb 17, 2016 11:11:19 GMT The Bishop said:

Feb 16, 2016 14:01:37 GMT carlton43 said:

Or Neville Sandelson, Desmond Donnelly, Woodrow Wyatt, Tom Driberg, and so many others.

Three of those four left the party, of course.

Driberg's personal life was outrageous (and it remains a minor miracle he escaped disgrace during his lifetime) but he tended to the left politically speaking.

His memoir "Ruling Passions" is eye-poppingly shameless in places. At the age of 19 Tom Driberg visited Italy with his mother. At Portofino he climbed the lighthouse where he found a 'sensuously attractive young lighthouse- keeper'. Things moved quickly -

He had clearly not had any sex for some days. Within five minutes or so I had rejoined my mother. `What a long time you were up there dear'. 'Well it was a lovely view mother'.

Why dear old Michael Foot agreed to write a foreword to this tasteless cavalcade of lechery I can't imagine.

[carlton43]

Feb 17, 2016 11:11:19 GMT The Bishop said:

Feb 16, 2016 14:01:37 GMT carlton43 said:

Or Neville Sandelson, Desmond Donnelly, Woodrow Wyatt, Tom Driberg, and so many others.

Three of those four left the party, of course.

Driberg's personal life was outrageous (and it remains a minor miracle he escaped disgrace during his lifetime) but he tended to the left politically speaking.

Indeed so. But they were examples of cultivated and even patrician MPs only now found in the Conservative Party, A Paget was even to the right of many Conservatives at that time! I think your party benefitted enormously from having them, both by retaining constituencies now quite out of reach and by having them as leavening within, rather as Henry Brooke, Meyer, Damian Green and Ken Clarke were/are a benefit to the Conservatives. But not the likes of say Shaun Woodward who just changed horses to stay in power and is for my part a part of the modern problem in politics.