The

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for the British

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

seat of

Oldham West Oldham West was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Oldham in the north-west of Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament ...

took place on 13 June 1968, at a time when the Labour government of Harold Wilson was deeply unpopular. The election was caused by the resignation of

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

(MP) Charles Leslie Hale for reasons of ill health. Hale had been an MP in the town since the 1945 general election. This election took place in a two-year period during which Labour lost ten seats in by-elections, never with a swing of less than ten percent against them. Oldham West was convincingly gained for the Conservatives with a 17.7% swing by

Bruce Campbell Bruce Lorne Campbell (born June 22, 1958) is an American actor and director. He is known for portraying Ash Williams in Sam Raimi's ''Evil Dead'' franchise, beginning with the 1978 short film ''Within the Woods''. He has starred in many low ...

with a majority of 3,311 over the Labour candidate

Michael Meacher Michael Hugh Meacher (4 November 1939 – 21 October 2015) was a British politician who served as a government minister under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Ol ...

. Meacher, a future minister both under

Wilson Wilson may refer to: People * Wilson (name) ** List of people with given name Wilson ** List of people with surname Wilson * Wilson (footballer, 1927–1998), Brazilian manager and defender * Wilson (footballer, born 1984), full name Wilson Ro ...

and in the Blair government, would go on to recover the seat from Campbell in the 1970 general election: 1968-1970 was the only time in the post-World War II era that this division of Oldham was not represented by Labour. The

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

, contesting the seat for the first time since 1951, finished in fourth place, while a creditable third place was gained by the former Liberal and celebrated novelist

John Creasey John Creasey (17 September 1908 – 9 June 1973) was an English crime writer, also writing science fiction, romance and western novels, who wrote more than six hundred novels using twenty-eight different pseudonyms. He created several charac ...

. Creasey two years previously had formed his own party of national unity, the short-lived All Party Alliance. He was joined on the campaign trail by the well-known actor

Robert Beatty Robert Rutherford Beatty (19 October 1909 – 3 March 1992) was a Canadian actor who worked in film, television and radio for most of his career and was especially known in the UK. Early years Beatty was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, O ...

, and made effective use of local newspapers to promote his campaign. This was the third in a series of by-elections which he fought, and though his best result to date, it was to be his last. He stated after the election that he intended to stand in the constituency again in the next general election; however in 1970 he announced that he would not be doing so.

Results

References

{{By-elections to the 44th UK Parliament Oldham West by-election Elections in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham Oldham West by-election Oldham West by-election Oldham West 1968 Oldham West 1968 1960s in Lancashire