Since the 2010 General Election, we’ve had a ludicrously high number of by-elections; if we continue at this rate we’ll have had a record number for one Parliamentary term (and a high number of political activists will have failed their degrees/lost their jobs/ended their relationships due the amount of time they’ve had to spend campaigning).
It all started in Oldham East and Saddleworth, when Phil Woolas was found guilty of making false accusations about his Lib Dem opponent, Elwyn Watkins; some of his elections literature manipulated photos in such a way that it appeared she had been arrested (nowadays, of course, the only accusation one has to make of Lib Dems is that they are liars, backstabbers and sell outs). Woolas found himself kicked out of Parliament and kicked out of the Labour Party, resulting in a by-election where the Labour candidate, Debbie Abrahams was elected.
And then Gerry Adams, of Northern Island’s Sinn Fein party resigned; triggering a by-election in Belfast West, which Sinn Fein candidate Paul Maskey won. Adams started something of a trend; after his resignation two Labour MPs, Eric Illsley of Barnsley Central and Peter Soulsby of Leicester South both followed suit, triggering two by-elections and the subsequent elections of Dan Jarvis and Jon Ashworth (both Labour).
Just when we thought we might get a by-election break, David Cairns, MP for Inverclyde died. The by-election that followed (and saw the election of Iain McKenzie) was, at least, mercifully, in June, when the weather as warm. The same could not be said of the Feltham and Heston by-election, following the death of Alan Keen, which saw activists bearing bitter winds and rain; the result was a very low turnout, but an 8% swing to Labour and the election of Seema Malhotra. And the Lib Dems did so badly, they lost their deposit.
So far, then, all these by-elections saw an MP from the same party as before elected; with Labour managing to increase its majorities, but nothing as thrilling as a seat changing hands.
And then there was Bradford West. After the resignation of Marsha Singh, this safe Labour seat was meant to be an easy win. But not so. Labour found themselves beaten, by a landslide, to a candidate who had pretended to be a cat on Big Brother (and is also, you know, an anti-Semite and a rape apologist); Respect’s George Galloway. Galloway’s victory was only marred when he invited the large Muslim community in Bradford to his victory rally…in the middle of prayers! (meanwhile, the Lib Dems, once again, lost their deposit).
So, that was just a tad awkward for Labour! But then there came a chance for them to redeem themselves; outspoken Conservative MP and chick lit writer, Louise Mensch, resigned from being MP for Corby and East Northamptonshire (the more cynical might say she wanted attention, but I’m sure she just wanted to spend more time with her family), and Labour candidate Andy Sawford, who’d expected to wait till 2015 to contest the seat, found himself in the middle of an historic by-election.
At this point, the by-elections stopped having the curtsy to at least happen one at once; alongside Corby, Manchester Central and Cardiff South and Penarth were both having by-elections on the same day. These two safe Labour seats elected two Labour MPs, Stephen Doughty and Lucy Powell (the first ever female MP for Manchester). The Tory vote was so decimated in Manchester they lost their deposit; while the Lib Dems lost their deposit in both, and were so desperate not to in Corby that they called for two recounts, but they’re unlucky streak continued, and they lost their deposit by a handful of votes. Meanwhile, Andy Sawford was elected, with a massive swing to Labour; this was a huge boost for the red team, as Corby tends to elect MPs of the same party as the party of government; as Andy said in his victory speech, “the road to Downing Street runs through Corby”.
(that’s Mr Mozarella to Andy’s left…who, yes, was a candidate. This by-election also had a candidate from the “Church of the Militant Elvis”).
And then, as if three by-elections at once weren’t enough, we had three more…just two weeks later! Rotherham, Croydon North and Middlebrough all decided to get on board with the trend; resulting in the elections of Sarah Champion, Steve Reed (the first openly gay MP to win a by-election) and Andy Macdonald; all Labour.
While Labour were celebrating and the Lib Dems crying over another flood of lost deposits (in Rotherham they suffered the worst ever result of a major party in a by-election), the Tories were scared. Because although they were never going to win this latest string of by-elections, something else rather interesting had been happening; the rise of UKIP. The Rotherham by-election was preceded by a scandal, where a couple who were members of the UK Independence Party had their foster children taken away from them by the council, who branded UKIP a racist party; causing a massive backlash where all major parties condemned the move. However, the rise of UKIP started long before the wave of publicity generated by this scandal. As well as taking large numbers of Tory voters, they are managing to get people who have never voted in their lives to vote. Which, whatever your opinion of them, is pretty impressive.
UKIP came second in Rotherham and Middlesbrough and third in Croydon North; the Rotherham result, especially, was not wonderful for the Tories, where they came fifth behind the BNP (a worrying result for anyone with a shred of human decency) and Respect. The problems facing the Conservative Party are starting to look more fundamental than just mid-term blues, and with Labour, Bradford aside, riding high, UKIP coming up on the horizon and the Lib Dems left hiding behind the sofa, 2015 is set to be rather interesting. Until then, though, political organisers, campaigners and activists can only hope, for the sake their sleeping patterns and their tired feet, that we have no more by-elections.
Images from:
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2011/03/lib-dems-extinct-in-wyre-forest-as-yet-more-councillors-quit/
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/back-in-parliament-george-galloway-sweeps-776646
http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02413/Rotherham-labour_2413212b.jpg
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article3612879.ece