The 1979 South West Hertfordshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 December 1979 for the British House of Commons constituency of South West Hertfordshire.

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The seat fell vacant when the constituency's

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

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 o ...

(MP), Geoffrey Hugh Dodsworth (born 7 June 1928) resigned due to ill health. On 24 October 1979 he was appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, a notional office of profit under the Crown, in order to vacate his Parliamentary seat. He is an accountant, who had contested Don Valley in 1959 and Hartlepool in 1964. He had represented South West Hertfordshire from the

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general election.

Candidates

Six candidates were nominated. The list below is set out in descending order of the number of votes received at the by-election. 1. The Conservative candidate was Richard Lewis Page (born on 22 February 1941), a mechanical engineer and company director. He served previously as MP for

Workington Workington is a coastal town and civil parish at the mouth of the River Derwent on the west coast in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England. The town was historically in Cumberland. At the 2011 census it had a population of 25,207. Locat ...

, between winning a 1976 by-election and being defeated at the 1979 general election. Page had also contested Workington in the February 1974 and October 1974 general elections, at the time represented by senior Labour cabinet minister,

Fred Peart Thomas Frederick Peart, Baron Peart, PC (30 April 1914 – 26 August 1988) was a British Labour politician who served in the Labour governments of the 1960s and 1970s and was a candidate for Deputy Leader of the Party. Early life and educatio ...

. After winning this by-election he was a junior minister under John Major. He stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election. 2. Mrs Susan A. Reeves was the Labour candidate. She was a housewife and had worked as a child guidance officer, although by 1983 she was working as a teacher and speech therapist. She was born on 31 March 1943. She contested the

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constituency in the 1979 general election, Stevenage in 1983 and Suffolk Coastal in 1987. 3. The Liberal Party candidate was Dane S.C. Clouston, who in 1974 was a mature student and former banker. He was born in September 1938 and had contested the Newbury seat in the 1970, February 1974 and October 1974 general elections. 4. N.R. Jeskins was 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 Par ...

candidate. 5. D.W. Bundy represented the Anti Common Market and Free Trade Party. 6. N.Q. Ffooks was an Independent, using the ballot paper label "Father Christmas: support Southampton University Rag".

Result

References

*''Times Guide to the House of Commons, October 1974, 1979 and 1983 editions'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Hertfordshire South West by-election, 1979 1979 elections in the United Kingdom 1979 in England By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Hertfordshire constituencies 1970s in Hertfordshire December 1979 events in the United Kingdom

Previous MP

Candidates

Result

See also

References