Ryedale by-election, 1986

The Ryedale by-election took place on 8 May 1986. It is the latest by-election to have just three candidates standing. The seat was regained by the Conservatives at the 1987 general election by John Greenway.

Background

In the spring of 1986 unemployment began rising at a greater rate than in previous years and the Conservative loss at Ryedale was a factor in "even committed supporters of the Government's economic strategy...insisting that reducing unemployment should now have priority".[1]

Result

Ryedale by-election, 1986
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
SDP–Liberal Alliance (Liberal) Elizabeth Shields 27,612
Conservative Neil Balfour 22,672
Labour Shirley Haines 4,633
Majority 4,940
Turnout
Liberal gain from Conservative Swing 19%[2]
General Election 1983: Ryedale
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Conservative John Spence 33,312 59.2
SDP–Liberal Alliance (Liberal) Elizabeth Shields 17,170 30.5
Labour P Bloom 5,816 10.3
Majority 16,142 -
Turnout
Conservative hold Swing

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11. Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 641.
  2. ↑ Chris Cook and John Ramsden (eds.), By-elections in British Politics (Routledge, 1997), p. 11.