Ashfield constituency Ashfield (UK Parliament constituency) Ashfield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system....
Ashfield shown within Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west... , and Nottinghamshire shown within England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

The Ashfield by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

 was held on 28 April 1977 in the Ashfield

Ashfield (UK Parliament constituency)

Ashfield is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post voting system....

 constituency in the coal mining

Coal mining

The goal of coal mining is to obtain coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content, and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from iron ore and for cement production. In the United States,...

 area of Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire

Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...

, following the resignation of Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 David Marquand

David Marquand

David Ian Marquand FBA, FRHistS, FRSA is a British academic and former Labour Party Member of Parliament .Born in Cardiff, Marquand was educated at Emanuel School, Magdalen College, Oxford, St. Antony’s College, Oxford, and at the University of California, Berkeley...

. Conservative

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 candidate Tim Smith

Tim Smith (UK politician)

Timothy John Smith, known as Tim Smith, is a former British Conservative politician.-Politics:...

 was the narrow winner in what was thought to have been a very safe Labour seat.

Marquand had resigned to take up a post at the European Commission

European Commission

The European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....

 in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, as an advisor to the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's newly-appointed Commissioner

Commissioner

Commissioner is in principle the title given to a member of a commission or to an individual who has been given a commission ....

 Roy Jenkins

Roy Jenkins

Roy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...

. His majority at the October 1974 general election

United Kingdom general election, October 1974

The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of...

 had been 22,915, which made the seat look very safe.

There was another by-election

Great Grimsby by-election, 1977

There was a by-election for the Great Grimsby in 1977.It was caused by the death of Anthony Crosland, and was retained for Labour by Austin Mitchell.It took place on the same day as the dramatic Labour defeat in Ashfield.-External links:...

 held on the same day, in Tony Crosland's nearby former seat of Grimsby

Great Grimsby (UK Parliament constituency)

Great Grimsby is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, consisting of the town of Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election...

 which looked much more marginal. Crosland had died on February 19 1977. The Labour Party directed most of its campaign effort into saving Grimsby, believing Ashfield was in no danger. This strategy succeeded in saving Grimsby, but allowed Tim Smith to win by 264 votes (after a recount) over Labour's Michael Cowan.

Smith was unable to hold the seat at the 1979 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1979

The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...

, when Labour's Frank Haynes

Frank Haynes

David Francis Haynes, usually known as Frank Haynes was a British politician. A member of the Labour Party, he served at the Member of Parliament for Ashfield from 1979-92....

won with a majority of 7,797.