1988 Kensington by-election
The Kensington by-election, in Kensington, on 14 July 1988 was held after the death of Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Brandon Rhys-Williams. Normally a relatively safe Conservative seat, it was narrowly won by Dudley Fishburn, who would retain the seat in 1992.
It was the first by-election of that parliament, which had begun after the general election of June 1987, and would last until the next election in April 1992.
Candidates
- John Connell was a peace advocate who opposed what he saw as manipulation of the news by ITN.[1]
- John Crowley described himself as an 'Anti Yuppie Revolutionary Crowleyist, Vegetarian Visionary'.[1]
- John Duignan was a supporter of the Class War organisation.[1]
- Roy Edey called for equal redistribution of wealth and a policy of social housing construction.[1]
- Dudley Fishburn was a former editor of The Economist.[2]
- William Goodhart was a leading human rights lawyer who has since taken a seat in the House of Lords.[3]
- Brian Goodier described himself as an 'Anti-Left Wing Fascist'.[1]
- Phylip Hobson was the Green Party candidate.
- Ann Holmes was again a candidate for this seat in the 1992 general election.[4] and subsequently became a councillor in the City of London.[5]
- John Martin was a candidate for the dissident wing of the SDP that had rejected membership of the Social and Liberal Democrats.
- Thomas McDermott was the founder of the Free Trade Liberal Party and campaigned on a platform of the UK leaving the European Community.[1]
- Cynthia Payne, who had been convicted of controlling a brothel, ran under the 'Rainbow Alliance Payne and Pleasure Party' banner.[1]
- William Scola represented his own 'Leveller Party'.[1]
- Screaming Lord Sutch was the leader and founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party.
- Kailash Trivedi ran as candidate for the 'Janata Party' (Peoples Party in Hindi and the name of a former governing party in India), his own creation.[1]
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Dudley Fishburn | 9,829 | 41.59 | −5.9 | |
| Labour | Patricia Holmes | 9,014 | 38.14 | +4.9 | |
| SLD | William Goodhart | 2,546 | 10.77 | −6.5 | |
| SDP | John Martin | 1,190 | 5.04 | New | |
| Green | Phylip Hobson | 572 | 2.42 | +0.7 | |
| Rainbow Alliance – Payne & Pleasure | Cynthia Payne | 193 | 0.82 | New | |
| Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 61 | 0.26 | New | |
| London Class War Candidate | John Duignan | 60 | 0.25 | New | |
| Anti Left-Wing Fascist | Brian Goodier | 31 | 0.13 | New | |
| Free Trade Liberal – Europe Out! | Thomas McDermott | 31 | 0.13 | New | |
| Fair Wealth & Health | Roy Edey | 30 | 0.13 | New | |
| Leveller Party | William Scola | 27 | 0.11 | New | |
| Anti-Yuppie | John Crowley | 24 | 0.10 | New | |
| Peace – Stop ITN Manipulation | John Connell | 20 | 0.08 | New | |
| Independent Janata Party | Kailash Trivedi | 5 | 0.02 | New | |
| Majority | 815 | 3.55 | -10.69 | ||
| Turnout | 23,633 | 51.6 | -13.1 | ||
| Registered electors | 45,830 | ||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | -5.40 | |||
The results for the previous election were:
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Brandon Rhys-Williams | 14,818 | 47.5 | +1.5 | |
| Labour | Benjamin Bousquet | 10,371 | 33.3 | +3.8 | |
| SDP | William Goodhart | 5,379 | 17.2 | −4.9 | |
| Green | Roger Shorter | 528 | 1.7 | −0.4 | |
| Humanist | Lana Carrick | 65 | 0.2 | New | |
| Public Independent Plaintiff Party | Muriel Hughes | 30 | 0.1 | New | |
| Majority | 4,447 | 14.26 | -2.14 | ||
| Turnout | 31,191 | 64.7 | +2.4 | ||
| Registered electors | 48,212 | ||||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
References
- Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1983–87 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
- Dudley Fishburn
- "Lord William Goodhart". Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
- Ann Holmes
- Ann Holmes, Farringdon Within
- "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
External links
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.