The Darlington by-election, 1983 was a parliamentary by-election held on 24 March 1983 for the British House of Commons constituency of Darlington in County Durham.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Edward Fletcher had died on 13 February 1983, a few days before his 72nd birthday. He had held the seat since the 1964 general election.
The result of the contest was a victory for the Labour candidate, Oswald O'Brien, who won with a majority of 2,412 over the Conservative Party candidate Michael Fallon. O'Brien only held the seat for three months, however, as it fell to Fallon at the general election in June 1983.
Darlington by-election, 1983 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Oswald O'Brien | 20,544 | 39.5 | −6.0 | |
Conservative | Michael Fallon | 18,132 | 34.9 | −8.5 | |
Social Democrat | Anthony Cook | 12,735 | 24.5 | +14.3 | |
Monster Raving Loony | David Sutch | 374 | 0.7 | N/A | |
Independent | Arthur Clark | 164 | 0.3 | N/A | |
Tactical Voting Annihilates Bennite Tatchellites | Thomas Keen | 27 | 0.1 | N/A | |
Yoga and Meditation | Jitendra Bardwaj | 15 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Republican | Peter Smith | 10 | 0.0 | N/A | |
Majority | 2,412 | 4.6 | +2.5 | ||
Turnout | 52,001 | ||||
Labour hold | Swing |
General election, 1979: Darlington | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
Labour | Edward Fletcher | 22,565 | 45.52 | +0.03 | |
Conservative | Timothy Kirkhope | 21,513 | 43.39 | +5.77 | |
Liberal | K. Walker | 5,054 | 10.19 | −6.44 | |
National Front | H. Outhwaite | 444 | 0.90 | N/A | |
Majority | 1,052 | 2.12 | −5.81 | ||
Turnout | 49,576 | 78.4 | +13.43 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | −2.82 |
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