The two Bootle by-elections were held during 1990, for 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 Bootle

Bootle (UK Parliament constituency)

Bootle is a borough 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 system of election. Since 1990 the MP has been Joe Benton of the Labour Party...

 in Merseyside

Merseyside

Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...

.

Bootle was one of Labour's safest seats, held by the party since 1945

United Kingdom general election, 1945

The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...

.

May by-election

The first by-election was caused by the death of 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 Bootle Allan Roberts

Allan Roberts

Allan Roberts was a British politician who was a Labour Member of Parliament from 1979 until his death. A teacher and social worker before his election, he was a member of the left-wing of the party.-Early life:...

, on 21 March 1990. Roberts had held the seat since 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...

, and his majority had remained over 15,000 even in the Conservative landslide victory of 1983

United Kingdom general election, 1983

The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

. At the 1987 general election

United Kingdom general election, 1987

The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...

, his majority had increased to almost 25,000.

For the by-election Labour selected Michael Carr

Michael Carr (Labour politician)

Michael Carr was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for Bootle for 57 days in 1990 from his election until his death. He was a dockworker who later became a trade union official, but his political rise was assisted by the help he gave the Labour Party leadership...

, a full-time official for the Transport and General Workers Union, and a former Labour councillor. The Conservatives, who had consistently taken second place in the seat, but were struggling in the national polls, nominated James Clappison

James Clappison

William James Clappison, commonly known as James Clappison, British barrister and Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament for Hertsmere, and serves as Vice Chairman of the Conservative Friends of Israel group.-Personal life:The son of a Yorkshire farmer, James Clappison was...

, a barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 from Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

. He had unsuccessfully contested Barnsley East

Barnsley East (UK Parliament constituency)

Barnsley East is a Parliamentary constituency in South Yorkshire which returns one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The seat was created as Barnsley East in 1983 and abolished to create Barnsley East and Mexborough in 1997...

 for the party in 1987, and the South Yorkshire constituency at the 1989 European Parliament election.

The newly-named Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 had suffered in the national polls since their formation by a merger of the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 and the Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK)

The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

, and in Bootle they were challenged by both David Owen

David Owen

David Anthony Llewellyn Owen, Baron Owen CH PC FRCP is a British politician.Owen served as British Foreign Secretary from 1977 to 1979, the youngest person in over forty years to hold the post; he co-authored the failed Vance-Owen and Owen-Stoltenberg peace plans offered during the Bosnian War...

's continuing Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK, 1988)

A Social Democratic Party was formed in the United Kingdom in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party Members of Parliament : Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams, who became known as the "Gang of Four"....

 and Michael Meadowcroft

Michael Meadowcroft

Michael James Meadowcroft is a politician and political affairs consultant in the United Kingdom.He was a Liberal Member of Parliament for Leeds West from 1983 to 1987, and founder of the "continuing" Liberal Party in 1989 following the party's merger with the Social Democratic Party to form the...

's continuing Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK, 1989)

The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that...

, both consisting of members of the former parties who had rejected the merger.

The Green Party

Green Party (UK)

The Green Party was a Green political party in the United Kingdom. It has been succeeded by three political parties:* the Green Party of England and Wales* the Green Party in Northern Ireland* the Scottish Green Party- PEOPLE, 1973–1975 :...

 also stood a candidate. Screaming Lord Sutch

Screaming Lord Sutch

David Edward Sutch , also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Screaming Lord Sutch", was a musician from the United Kingdom...

 of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party

Official Monster Raving Loony Party

The Official Monster Raving Loony Party is a registered political party established in the United Kingdom in 1983 by musician and politician David Sutch , better known as Screaming Lord Sutch.-History:...

 and an independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

 rounded out the field.

The Loonies gained publicity after the Labour Party election agent

Election agent

In elections in the United Kingdom, as well as in certain other similar political systems such as India's, an election agent is the person legally responsible for the conduct of a candidate's political campaign and to whom election material is sent to by those running the election. In elections in...

 unsuccessfully tried to get Sutch charged with having a public house

Public house

A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...

 as an election campaign headquarters. This had not been illegal since 1987.

The election was held on 24 May. Despite having to contend with a large field of candidates, Carr increased the Labour vote, to win with more than three-quarters of all the votes cast. The Conservative vote halved, although they retained second position, as the Liberal Democrat vote could not match that of the SDP-Liberal Alliance

SDP-Liberal Alliance

The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...

 in 1987. The Greens polled 3.6%, while the continuing Liberals fared poorly, and the continuing Social Democrats were beaten even by the Monster Raving Loonies. Sutch jokingly offered to form a coalition with them, and the party was wound up soon afterwards, but Holmes formed yet another Social Democratic Party

Social Democratic Party (UK, 1990)

The Social Democratic Party is a small political party in the United Kingdom. It traces its origin to the Social Democratic Party that was formed in 1981 by a group of dissident Labour Party politicians, all Members of Parliament or former MPs: Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley...

 of members who wished to continue.

November by-election

Carr died on 20 July, only 57 days after his election. A new by-election was called for the 8 November.

Labour stood Joe Benton

Joe Benton

Joseph Edward Benton is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Bootle since 1990.-Early life:...

, the leader of Sefton Borough Council, a local Justice of the Peace

Justice of the Peace

A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 and a personnel manager with Girobank

Girobank

Girobank was a British public sector financial institution founded in 1968 by the General Post Office. Itstarted life as the National Giro but went through several name changes, becoming National Girobank, then Girobank Plc , before merging into Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank...

. All the other parties stood the same candidates as in May, although the Social Democratic Party and the independent did not stand. The only addition to the field was David Black, a candidate in the previous year's Vauxhall

Vauxhall by-election, 1989

A by-election for the United Kingdom House of Commons was held in the constituency of Vauxhall on the 15th June 1989, following the resignation of sitting Member of Parliament Stuart Holland....

 and Vale of Glamorgan by-election

Vale of Glamorgan by-election, 1989

A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Vale of Glamorgan on May 4, 1989 following the death of Conservative MP Sir Raymond Gower.Eleven candidates stood, which remains the most in any Welsh by-election....

s, standing as "Christian Alliance".

On a low turnout of 39.7%, Benton increased the Labour Party majority again, taking 78.2% of the vote. The Conservative vote held steady, while all the other parties dropped back. This allowed the Loonies to overtake the continuing Liberal Party.

Benton remains the Member of Parliament for the seat, while Clappison was elected in 1992

United Kingdom general election, 1992

The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

 for Hertsmere

Hertsmere (UK Parliament constituency)

-Elections in the 2000s:-Elections in the 1990s:- Notes and references :...

.