The 1979 Liverpool Edge Hill by-election was a parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, or a bypoll in India, is an election used to fill an office that has become vacant between general elections. A vacancy may arise as a result of an incumben ...

held on 29 March 1979 to elect a new Member of Parliament (MP) for the UK

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

constituency An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Liverpool Edge Hill Liverpool Edge Hill was a borough constituency within the city and metropolitan borough of Liverpool, in the English county of Merseyside, centred on Edge Hill. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliame ...

. Polling in the by-election took place one day after the government of

James Callaghan Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff ( ; 27 March 191226 March 2005) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the L ...

had lost a vote of no confidence in parliament and slightly over a month before the 1979 general election. The seat had become vacant in the previous December, upon the death of the constituency's Labour Party MP Sir

Arthur Irvine Sir Arthur James Irvine, QC PC (14 July 1909 – 15 December 1978) was a British barrister and politician. He was the Labour MP for Liverpool Edge Hill from the 1947 by-election until he died aged 69. Irvine was educated at Edinburgh ...

, who had held the seat since a by-election in 1947. The result was a gain for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

, represented by

David Alton David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, (born 15 March 1951) is a British-Irish politician, formerly a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrats (UK), Liberal Democrat who has sat as ...

. Having made his maiden speech on 3 April, just before the House rose for the election, he was re-elected a few weeks later, and from 1983 held the

Mossley Hill Mossley Hill is a suburb of Liverpool and ward of Liverpool City Council. Located 3.5 miles southeast of the city centre, it is bordered by the suburbs of Aigburth, Allerton, Childwall, Garston, and Wavertree. At the 2001 Census, the popul ...

seat until he stood down from the Commons in 1997, 18 years after the by-election.

Result

References

External links

David Alton's account of the by-election
1979 elections in the United Kingdom 1979 in England 1970s in Liverpool Edge Hill, 1979 {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub

Result

See also

References

External links