The Lewisham North

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 ...

of 14 February 1957 was held following the death of

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)

Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet Sir Austin Uvedale Morgan Hudson, 1st Baronet (6 February 1897 – 29 November 1956) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. Constituencies Hudson was first elected at the 1922 general election as Member of Parliament (MP ...

the previous year. In a defeat for the Conservative government, the seat was gained by the Labour Party.

Candidates

The Conservative Party chose Norman Farmer as their candidate for the seat, which had been held by the party since its creation in

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 crashes in a snowstorm. All 19 ...

. The Labour Party candidate was

Niall MacDermot Niall MacDermot CBE OBE QC (10 September 1916 – 22 February 1996) was a British Labour politician. MacDermot was educated at Rugby School and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, and served in the Intelligence Corps during the Second Worl ...

, the son of an Irish barrister. Himself a successful lawyer, he had only joined the party the previous year after fearing that his involvement in an earlier manslaughter case would preclude any political ambitions. MacDermot's mentor within the party, Elwyn Jones, persuaded him to run for election. Leslie Greene ran as an "independent loyalist" candidate. Although an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

she was actively supported by the right-wing pressure group the

League of Empire Loyalists The League of Empire Loyalists (LEL) was a British pressure group (also called a "ginger group" in Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations), established in 1954. Its ostensible purpose was to stop the dissolution of the British Empire. The League ...

. Greene, the group's organising secretary, had gained notoriety the previous year when she interrupted a speech by Anthony Eden, typical of the sort of headline-grabbing stunt favoured by the group at the time.

Result of the previous general election

Results from the previous general election were:

Result of the by-election

The results of the by-election were as follows:

References

{{By-elections to the 41st UK Parliament Lewisham North,1957 Lewisham North by-election Lewisham North by-election Lewisham North,1957