1979 Knutsford by-election
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates The 1979 Knutsford by-election was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Knutsford in Cheshire on 1 March 1979. It was won by the Conservative Party candidate Jock Bruce-Gardyne.
The by-election took place just over a month before parliament was dissolved (7 April) ahead of the 1979 general election on 3 May.
Vacancy
The seat had become vacant when the Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), John Davies had resigned due to illness on 6 November 1978. He had held the seat since the 1970 general election and had served as Secretary of State for Industry and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the Government of Edward Heath, having previously been Director of the Confederation of British Industry.
Candidates
The Conservative candidate was 48-year-old Jock Bruce-Gardyne, who had been MP for South Angus from 1964 until his defeat at the October 1974 general election. The Labour Party candidate was Alan Barton, and the Liberals fielded Robert Ingham. Michael Byrne stood as an Independent Conservative.
Result
The result was a clear victory for Bruce-Gardyne in this Conservative safe seat, with a much increased majority of 16,880. Both the Labour and Liberal vote fell by a few per cent.
Bruce-Gardyne held the seat until its abolition for the 1983 general election, when he was effectively forced out of the Commons due to a reduction of the number of Cheshire seats. He was elevated to the House of Lords in the same year.
Votes
Template:Election box winning candidate with party link| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | <templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" />±%Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Script error: No such module "Political party". | Robert Ingham | 5,206 | 15.8 | Script error: No such module "String". | |
| Script error: No such module "Political party". | Alan Barton | 5,124 | 15.6 | Script error: No such module "String". | |
| Script error: No such module "Political party". | Michael Byrne | 486 | 1.5 | Script error: No such module "String". | |
| Majority | 16,880 | 51.3 | Script error: No such module "String". | ||
| Turnout | 32,902 | Script error: No such module "String". | |||
| Script error: No such module "Political party". hold | Swing | +13.4 | |||
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Template:Election box winning candidate with party link| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | <templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" />±%Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Script error: No such module "Political party". | B. Lomax | 11,210 | 26.4 | Script error: No such module "String". | |
| Script error: No such module "Political party". | D.L. Swain | 9.565 | 22.6 | Script error: No such module "String". | |
| Majority | 10,426 | 24.6 | Script error: No such module "String". | ||
| Turnout | 42,411 | 76.8 | Script error: No such module "String". | ||
| Script error: No such module "Political party". hold | Swing | ||||
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See also
References
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