The Blaydon byelection of 2 February 1956 was a by-election

By-election

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

 held in the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 constituency of Blaydon in the North East of England.

It was caused by the death on 3 November 1955 of William Whiteley

William Whiteley (politician)

William Whiteley, CH, PC, DL was the Labour Member of Parliament for Blaydon in County Durham.William Whiteley, not to be confused with the founder of the Department Store of the same name, was a Durham miner by background and lodge official also...

, the sitting Labour Party

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,...

 for the constituency, who had first been elected in 1922 and had represented it ever since with the exception of 1931 to 1935. Labour Party candidate Robert Woof held the seat with little change in the majority.

Candidates

Labour selected Robert Woof, who was a miner and official with the National Union of Mineworkers; Woof, who was 44, had been a member of Durham County Council

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

 since 1947. The Conservative Party

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 was John Reay-Smith, a 40 year old solicitor who had been a member of Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland

Bishop Auckland is a market town and civil parish in County Durham in north east England. It is located about northwest of Darlington and southwest of Durham at the confluence of the River Wear with its tributary the River Gaunless...

 Urban District Council and fought the constituency in the 1955 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1955

The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...

.

Results

Robert Woof won with a majority of 10,714, and went on to hold it for the next 23 years before retiring 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...

.

Votes

See also

• Blaydon (UK Parliament constituency)
• List of United Kingdom by-elections (1950 - 1979)