The 1985 Tyne Bridge by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 5 December 1985 for the British House of Commons constituency of

Tyne Bridge The Tyne Bridge is a through arch bridge over the River Tyne in North East England, linking Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead. The bridge was designed by the engineering firm Mott, Hay and Anderson, who later designed the Forth Road Bridge, a ...

Previous MP

The seat fell vacant when the constituency's 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 Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

(MP), Harry Lowes Cowans (19 December 1932 – 3 October 1985) died. Cowans was elected MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central at a

1976 by-election Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

. After boundary changes, he was elected for

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general e ...

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. Representing the Labour Party was David Gordon Clelland (born 27 June 1943), who was 42 years old at the time of the by-election. He was a member of the Engineering Union, who had worked on the shop floor for 22 years before being made redundant. He was secretary of a local government association and was leader of Gateshead Council at the time of the by-election. Clelland was the

for

until

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. 2. The Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, representing the SDP-Liberal Alliance, was

Rod Kenyon Rodney Frank Kenyon (June 1945 – 8 December 2013) was a former Human Resources Director at British Gas and was Director of the British Gas Engineering Academy.http://www.uwl.ac.uk/the_university/how_the_university_works/profiles/rod_kenyon.j ...

. He was a Personnel Manager for Northern Gas and was aged 40 at the time of the by-election. He had contested the seat of Houghton and Washington in the

. 3. The Conservative candidate was Mrs. Jacqueline Anne "Jacqui" Lait (born on 16 December 1947), a then 37-year-old with a Westminster and European Parliamentary Consultancy. Since 1985 Mrs. Lait has served in the House of Commons, first representing

Hastings and Rye Hastings and Rye is a constituency in East Sussex represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Sally-Ann Hart of the Conservative Party. From 2010 until 2019, it was represented by Amber Rudd, who served as Secretary of ...

from 1992 until she was defeated in the 1997 general election. She was then returned, at a by-election later in 1997, as MP for

Beckenham Beckenham () is a town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley, in Greater London. Until 1965 it was part of the historic county of Kent. It is located south-east of Charing Cross, situated north of Elmers End and ...

, which she represented until 2010. 4. John Connell was an Independent, using the ballot paper label "Peace Candidate". 5. George Weiss (born 1940) was another Independent candidate, using the ballot paper label "Captain Rainbow Universal Party (Abolish Parliament)". 6. Peter Reid Smith was nominated with the description "New National". During the campaign he admitted that he had forged the signatures of the ten electors needed on his nomination papers; he was subsequently charged with forgery.

Votes

Note: * ^a Change from the Liberal candidate who represented the SDP-Liberal Alliance in the 1983 general election.

References

Sources

* ''Britain Votes/Europe Votes By-Election Supplement 1983-'', compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (Parliamentary Research Services 1985) {{DEFAULTSORT:Tyne Bridge By-Election, 1985 1985 elections in the United Kingdom 1985 in England December 1985 events in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in North East England constituencies Elections in Tyne and Wear 20th century in Tyne and Wear

Previous MP

Candidates

Votes

See also

References

Sources