Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election, 2004

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Hodge Hill constituency shown within Birmingham

A by-election was held for the United Kingdom Parliament seat of Birmingham Hodge Hill, on July 15, the same day as the Leicester South by-election. The seat was won by the Labour Party Liam Byrne, but with a vastly reduced majority. The reduction in the Labour majority has been blamed on the 2003 Iraq War. This was reflected in the notably high poll for a minor "fourth party", Respect, formed earlier that year by expelled Labour MP, George Galloway and dissident socialists.

After the election, the defeated Liberal Democrat candidate and election team have made accusations of "dirty tricks" by the Labour election campaign. Arguments for such a campaign were based on Labour's anti-phone mast stance, in the face of a Liberal Democrat candidate, Nicola Davies, employment with a mobile phone company, as well as a commitment to smashing teen gangs and in the face of the Lib Dem's liberal message on drugs. However, the Labour party maintains their tactics were legitimate.

The Member of Parliament for Birmingham Hodge Hill, Terry Davis of the Labour Party, resigned from the House of Commons on June 22, 2004, thus freeing him to take up the post of secretary general of the Council of Europe.

The results were announced following a partial re-count (technically, not a recount at all, but a check of the bundles to ensure that all parties' ballot papers had been grouped together) at the request of the Liberal Democrats. Liam Byrne of the Labour Party won with 7,451 votes, a majority of 460 over Nicola Davies of the Liberal Democrats.

The area has had a Labour MP since the 1950 general election, the only break being a Conservative Party victory at a 1977 by-election for the Birmingham Stechford constituency. Stechford returned to Labour at the 1979 general election.

[edit] Results

Turnout was 37.89%.

2004 by-election: Birmingham Hodge Hill
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Liam Byrne	7,451	36.5	-27.4
	Liberal Democrats	Nicola Davies	6,991	34.2	+26.1
	Conservative	Stephen Eyre	3,543	17.3	+2.7
	Respect	John Rees	1,282	6.3
	National Front	Jim Starkey	805	3.9
	English Democrats	Mark Wheatley	277	1.4
	Christian Vote	Rev. George Hargreaves	90	0.4
Majority
Turnout

[edit] 2001 result

From the 2001 general election.

2001 General Election: Birmingham, Hodge Hill
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Terry Davis	16,901	63.9	-1.7
	Conservative	Debbie Lewis	5,283	20.0	-4.0
	Liberal Democrats	Charles Dow	2,147	8.1	-0.4
	British National	Lee Windridge	889	3.3
	People's Justice	Perwaz Hussain	561	2.1
	Socialist Labour	Dennis Cridge	284	1.1
	UK Independence	Harvey Vivian	275	1.0	-0.9
	Muslim Party	Ayub Khan	125	0.5
Majority			11,618	43.9
Turnout			26,465	47.9