On 23 July 2004, the 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 Hartlepool

Hartlepool (UK Parliament constituency)

Hartlepool 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.- Boundaries :...

, in 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...

, Peter Mandelson

Peter Mandelson

Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson, PC is a British Labour Party politician, who was the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool from 1992 to 2004, served in a number of Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, and was a European Commissioner...

 (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...

), was nominated as the United Kingdom's new European Commissioner

European Commissioner

A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each Member within the college holds a specific portfolio and are led by the President of the European Commission...

. On 8 September he accepted the office of Steward of the Manor of Northstead, thereby disqualifying himself from Parliament and causing a by-election. Polling took place on 30 September.

It was the last of a mere six by-elections which were held during the 2001-2005 parliament.

Results

Out of a registered electorate of 68,517, there were 31,362 valid votes, making a turnout of 45.77%. This was the highest by-election turnout since the Romsey by-election

Romsey by-election, 2000

Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Colvin and his wife died in a fire at their home on 24 February 2000. This created a by-election in his constituency of Romsey in Hampshire, England....

 in May 2000.

The 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...

 candidate Iain Wright

Iain Wright

Iain David Wright is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Hartlepool since 2004, and was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State with responsibility for apprenticeships and 14-19 reform in the Department for Children, Schools and Families until 11 May...

 won the seat with a majority of 2,033, a substantially reduced majority. The Liberal Democrat vote more than doubled, leaving them a close second. The UK Independence Party held their deposit and beat the Conservatives into third place. The Conservative vote dropped considerably, leaving them in fourth place for the first time in an English by-election since Liverpool Walton in 1991

Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991

The Liverpool Walton by-election was held on 4 July 1991, following the death of the Labour Party Member of Parliament Eric Heffer for Liverpool Walton, on 27 May.The constituency had become a safe Labour seat under Heffer, who was known as a left-wing MP...

.

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Robert Kilroy-Silk

Robert Michael Kilroy-Silk is an English former politician, former independent Member of the European Parliament, and former television presenter, best known for his daytime talk show Kilroy. He has been a university lecturer and Labour Party Member of Parliament...

 of UKIP

United Kingdom Independence Party

The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...

 initially suggested he might stand but later ruled this out, as did Hartlepool

Hartlepool

Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...

 and Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough

Middlesbrough is a large town situated on the south bank of the River Tees in north east England, that sits within the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire...

 mayors Stuart Drummond

Stuart Drummond

Stuart Drummond is the first directly-elected mayor of Hartlepool in North East England. He was first elected in 2002 and was re-elected in 2005 and 2009. He was the first elected mayor in Britain to win a third term.-Biography:...

 and Ray Mallon

Ray Mallon

Ray Mallon is the directly elected Mayor of Middlesbrough.-Early life:Ray Mallon was raised in Thornaby-on-Tees, Yorkshire, a working-class town near Middlesbrough and Stockton-On-Tees, the only child of Joe and Pauline Mallon...

.

Preceding by-elections had seen the Liberal Democrats come from third place to beat 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...

, and in Brent East

Brent East by-election, 2003

The Brent East by-election, 2003 was caused by the death on 18 June 2003 of the Member of Parliament for the constituency of Brent East, Paul Daisley, of the Labour Party....

 and Leicester South

Leicester South by-election, 2004

A by-election was held in Leicester South on 15 July, the same day as the Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election. It was won by Parmjit Singh Gill of the Liberal Democrats, over-turning a Labour majority of 13,243 votes at the 2001 General Election....

 take seats from 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...

. The seat was safer (judging by the 2001 result) than Leicester but was vulnerable to swings such as achieved in Brent, or in Birmingham Hodge Hill where the Lib Dems narrowly failed to win.

In the event the Liberal Democrats were not quite able to repeat these performances. Their campaign suffered by the choice of a candidate who was not from Hartlepool

Hartlepool

Hartlepool is a town and port in North East England.It was founded in the 7th century AD, around the Northumbrian monastery of Hartlepool Abbey. The village grew during the Middle Ages and developed a harbour which served as the official port of the County Palatine of Durham. A railway link from...

, while the Labour candidate had been born and brought up in the town. In addition the Liberal Democrat candidate made reference, on a campaign blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

, to having canvassed a street where everyone she met "was either drunk, flanked by an angry dog, or undressed"; Labour gave wide publicity to this remark and asserted that it was an insult to the people of Hartlepool.

Hartlepool had no significant ethnic minority vote, which had been present in the other three by-elections. The Liberal Democrats were nevertheless content to claim the large swing to them and the Conservatives' fourth place, established the Lib Dems as the main opposition party to Labour. The UK Independence Party did well in Hartlepool with a local candidate, and their message of opposition to European Union fishing rules was a popular one in a port town.

The Conservatives dropped from second place at the 2001 general election to fourth place, their worst place in an English by-election since the Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991

Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991

The Liverpool Walton by-election was held on 4 July 1991, following the death of the Labour Party Member of Parliament Eric Heffer for Liverpool Walton, on 27 May.The constituency had become a safe Labour seat under Heffer, who was known as a left-wing MP...

Labour regarded the result as good news for them as it came at the end of a very long campaign (effectively 71 days) and with a swing markedly smaller than in other seats over the previous year. Labour also regarded the result - along with that in Hodge Hill - as a vindication of their decision to aggressively attack the Liberal Democrats and essentially ignore the Conservative challenge.

2001 result

From the 2001 general election

United Kingdom general election, 2001

The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

.