The 1985 Tyne Bridge by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 5 December 1985 for the

British House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

constituency An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger State (polity), state (a country, administrative region, ...

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, ...

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The seat fell vacant when the constituency's

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), Harry Lowes Cowans (19 December 1932 – 3 October 1985) died. Cowans was elected MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central at a 1976 by-election. After boundary changes, he was elected for

in 1983 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. Representing the Labour Party was

David Gordon Clelland David Gordon Clelland (born 27 June 1943) is a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Tyne Bridge (UK Parliament constituency), Tyne Bridge from the 1 ...

(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

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. 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 1983 general election. 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 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 E ...

, 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

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Candidates

Votes

See also

References

Sources