The

Walsall North Walsall North is a constituency created in 1955 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member of the Conservative Party. The local electorate returned a Labour MP in the seat's first seventeen ...

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 ...

on 4 November 1976 was held after the resignation of sitting

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) John Stonehouse. Elected as a

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 ...

candidate, Stonehouse was a member of the

English National Party English National Party has been the name of various political parties of England, which have commonly called for a separate parliament for England. The original ENP History The English National Party (ENP) was founded as the John Hampden New ...

when he resigned, after an interlude in which he faked his own death. The English National Party did not contest the by-election, the first occasion on which the incumbent's party did not do so since the

1963 Bristol South East by-election The 1963 Bristol South East by-election was a by-election held on 20 August 1963 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol. The seat had become vacant in 1961 when the constituency's Labour Member o ...

, and the last until the

1995 North Down by-election The 1995 North Down by-election, in the North Down constituency, was held on 15 June, following the death of James Kilfedder, who had represented the constituency since the 1970 general election. Kilfedder had formed the Ulster Popular Unionis ...

. Amidst the confusion, the

Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...

gained the seat in the by-election. The by-election was also noted for the performance of independent candidate Sidney Wright, the debut of the

Ecology Party The Green Party, also known as the Green Party UK, was a Green political party in the United Kingdom. Prior to 1985 it was called the Ecology Party, and before that PEOPLE. In 1990, it separated into three political parties: * the Green Part ...

and the split of the

far right Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...

vote due to the appearance of both the National Front and their splinter group the National Party on the ballots.M. Walker, ''The National Front'', Glasgow: Fontana Collins, 1977 The Liberal Party could take only fifth place, their worst ever placing in a by-election in England. The party had previously come fifth in Wales in the

1972 Merthyr Tydfil by-election The Merthyr Tydfil by-election of 13 April 1972 was held after the death of S. O. Davies on 25 February the same year. The Labour Party won the by-election in what had traditionally been a safe seat, although Davies had been elected in the 197 ...

, and next placed so low at the

1989 Glasgow Central by-election The Glasgow Central by-election, in the Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency), Glasgow Central United Kingdom constituencies, constituency, was held on 15 June 1989. It was caused by the death of the sitting Member of Parliament (United Ki ...

. The by-election also saw a record number of candidates, beating the long-standing record of seven who contested the

1920 Stockport by-election The 1920 Stockport by-election was a by-election, parliamentary by-election held on 27 March 1920 for the United Kingdom constituency, constituency of Stockport (UK Parliament constituency), Stockport, in Cheshire. It followed the death of Spence ...

, where two seats were available, a total first reached in a single-member by-election in the 1962 Dorset South by-election. This record was again beaten at the

1977 City of London and Westminster South by-election The City of London and Westminster South by-election on 24 February 1977 was held after Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Christopher Tugendhat resigned the seat upon his appointment to the European Commission. A safe Conservative seat, it wa ...

. Joseph Parker, the National Front candidate, would go on to be father-in-law to

John Tyndall John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the p ...

, the leader of the National Front, after Tyndall married Parker's daughter Valerie in 1977.

Results

References

{{By-elections to the 47th UK Parliament 1976 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in West Midlands (county) constituencies Politics of Walsall 1976 in England 1970s in the West Midlands (county) November 1976 events in the United Kingdom

Results

See also

References