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.
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Constituency of Kensington | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 51.6% ( 13.1%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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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 | N/A | |
| Green | Phylip Hobson | 572 | 2.42 | +0.7 | |
| Rainbow Alliance – Payne & Pleasure | Cynthia Payne | 193 | 0.82 | N/A | |
| Monster Raving Loony | Screaming Lord Sutch | 61 | 0.26 | N/A | |
| London Class War Candidate | John Duignan | 60 | 0.25 | N/A | |
| Anti Left-Wing Fascist | Brian Goodier | 31 | 0.13 | N/A | |
| Free Trade Liberal – Europe Out! | Thomas McDermott | 31 | 0.13 | N/A | |
| Fair Wealth & Health | Roy Edey | 30 | 0.13 | N/A | |
| Leveller Party | William Scola | 27 | 0.11 | N/A | |
| Anti-Yuppie | John Crowley | 24 | 0.10 | N/A | |
| Peace – Stop ITN Manipulation | John Connell | 20 | 0.08 | N/A | |
| Independent Janata Party | Kailash Trivedi | 5 | 0.02 | N/A | |
| 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 | N/A | |
| Public Independent Plaintiff Party | Muriel Hughes | 30 | 0.1 | N/A | |
| 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
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