The Rotherham by-election was held on 5 May 1994, following the death of Labour Party

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for

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

Jimmy Boyce. Boyce had won the seat only at the 1992 general election, but it had been continuously held by Labour since

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

, usually with a large majority. As a result, Labour were clear favourites to hold at the

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election ( Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to ...

. Labour decided to stand Denis MacShane, the director of the European Policy Institute. A former

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and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

employee, he had unsuccessfully contested

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at the October 1974 general election. The

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

had taken a distant second place in 1992, and having lost the previous two by-elections of the term to the Liberal Democrats, they were not hopeful of gaining ground. They chose to stand

Nick Gibb Nicolas John Gibb (born 3 September 1960) is a British politician serving as Minister of State for Schools since October 2022, having previously held the office from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2021. He has served at the Department for ...

, a chartered accountant working for

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. The Liberal Democrats had taken less than one eighth of the votes cast in 1992, a significant decrease from the previous election. Despite this, they stood the same candidate, David Wildgoose. Two other candidates stood:

Screaming Lord Sutch Screaming Lord Sutch (10 November 1940 – 16 June 1999), who had his name legally changed from David Edward Sutch, was an English musician and perennial parliamentary candidate. He was the founder of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party a ...

of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, and Keith Laycock of the

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Results

As expected, MacShane easily won the seat, although, disappointingly for the main opposition party, his vote was more than eight percent down on Boyce's. Wildgoose improved his fortunes, more than doubling his vote, and taking second place. Gibb took less than ten percent of the votes, falling to a distant third place. Sutch was able to record his best ever result, taking 1,114 votes and a 4.2% share - within a percentage point of the Loonies retaining a deposit for the first time. At the 1997 general election, MacShane retained the seat, with an increased majority. Wildgoose also stood, but proved unable to equal his performance in 1994, and by 2001 moved to contest Wentworth. At the Rotherham by-election of 2012, Wildgoose contested the seat again, though on this occasion as an English Democrat, ironically polling more votes than the Liberal Democrat candidate. Gibb became one of the few new Conservatives to enter Parliament in 1997, winning

Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (contemp. RP ) is a constituency in West Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 1997 by Nick Gibb, a Conservative. Boundaries and constituency profile 1997–2010: The District of ...

. Sutch stood in several subsequent by-elections, but was never able to beat his total in Rotherham.

References

United Kingdom Election Results

Results

References

See also