1973 West Bromwich by-election
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Constituency of West Bromwich | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The West Bromwich by-election of 24 May 1973 was held after the appointment of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Foley to the European Commission. The constituency, held continuously by Labour since 1935, was retained in this by-election.
Campaign
The election campaign was noted for the refusal of Enoch Powell, MP for neighbouring Wolverhampton South West, to endorse Conservative candidate David Bell; he felt that Bell was too far removed from his own policies on immigration and United Kingdom membership of the European Communities.[1] Although Powell did not endorse any candidate, the National Front (NF) claimed that Powell's refusal to support Bell represented tacit endorsement of itself. On polling day Martin Webster captured 16% of the vote, an all-time high for the NF, which thereby saved its deposit.
In common with a number of by-elections at the time, the Liberal Party did not compete for this seat.
Results
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Betty Boothroyd | 15,907 | 53.21 | −2.02 | |
Conservative | David Bell | 7,582 | 25.36 | −19.41 | |
National Front | Martin Webster | 4,789 | 16.02 | New | |
Independent | Joshua Churchman | 1,616 | 5.41 | New | |
Majority | 8,325 | 27.85 | |||
Turnout | 29,894 | 43.6 | |||
Labour hold | Swing |
See also
- West Bromwich (UK Parliament constituency)
- 1941 West Bromwich by-election
- 1963 West Bromwich by-election
- The town of West Bromwich
- Lists of United Kingdom by-elections
References
- ^ Simon Heffer, Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell, London, 1998. ISBN 0-297-84286-2, pp. 667–668
- ^ "1973 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
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