1986 Ryedale by-election

1986 Ryedale by-election
← 1983 8 May 1986 1987 →
Constituency of Ryedale
Turnout67.3% (Decrease4.5%)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Con
Lab
Candidate Elizabeth Shields Neil Balfour Shirley Haines
Party Liberal Conservative Labour
Popular vote 27,612 22,672 4,633
Percentage 50.3% 41.3% 8.4%
Swing Increase19.8% Decrease17.9% Decrease1.9%
MP before election

John Spence
Conservative

Subsequent MP

Elizabeth Shields
Liberal

The 1986 Ryedale by-election took place on 8 May 1986. The election was held on the same day as the 1986 local elections and the West Derbyshire by-election

It is the latest by-election to have just three candidates standing.

The seat was regained by the Conservatives the next year at the 1987 general election by John Greenway.

Background

In the spring of 1986 unemployment began rising at a greater rate than in previous years and the Conservative loss at Ryedale was a factor (according to Nigel Lawson) in "even committed supporters of the Government's economic strategy...insisting that reducing unemployment should now have priority".[1]

Result

Ryedale by-election, 1986[2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal (Alliance) Elizabeth Shields 27,612 50.28 +19.8
Conservative Neil Balfour 22,672 41.28 −17.9
Labour Shirley Haines 4,633 8.44 −1.9
Majority 4,940 9.00 N/A
Turnout 54,917 67.3 −4.5
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing +19.0[3]

Previous General election

General election 1983: Ryedale
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Spence 33,312 59.2
Alliance (Liberal) Elizabeth Shields 17,170 30.5
Labour P Bloom 5,816 10.3
Majority 16,142 28.7
Turnout 56,838
Conservative win (new seat)

See also

Notes

  • Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 2)
  1. ^ Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11. Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 641.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Chris Cook and John Ramsden (eds.), By-elections in British Politics (Routledge, 1997), p. 11.
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