The

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

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 30 October 1969 was held after

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)

Francis Noel-Baker Francis Edward Noel-Baker (7 January 1920 – 25 September 2009) was a British Labour Party MP. His father was Labour MP and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Philip Noel-Baker. Early life Born in London, Noel-Baker was educated at Westminster Scho ...

resigned from the House of Commons. The seat was won by 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 ...

in a defeat for

Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...

's government.Full result

Background

To defend the seat they had won with a majority of over 10,000 votes at the 1966 general election Labour chose David Stoddart, a member of

Reading Borough Council Reading Borough Council is the local authority for the Borough of Reading in the English county of Berkshire. It is a unitary authority, having the powers of a non-metropolitan county and district council combined. Berkshire is purely a ceremonia ...

since 1954 and leader of the Labour Party group on that council since 1962. He had previously stood as the Labour candidate for Newbury in the

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

and 1964 general elections. The Conservatives, who had come second at the last election, chose

Christopher Ward Christopher Ward may refer to: * Christopher Ward (British politician) (born 1942), British solicitor and Conservative Party politician * Christopher Ward (conductor) (born 1980), British conductor * Christopher Ward (entomologist) (1836–1900), E ...

, a solicitor and member of

Berkshire County Council The Council of the Royal County of Berkshire, also known as the Berkshire County Council, was the top-tier local government administrative body for Berkshire from 1889 to 1998. The local authority had responsibilities for education, social servi ...

Results

Aftermath

This was one of five by-elections held on the same day where Labour were trying to retain a seat that they held. While they held the other four seats, with the exception of Glasgow Gorbals, none of them was a comfortable hold, with Labour's majorities being significantly reduced by the Conservatives. The swing to the Conservatives in Swindon was 12.9%, which was much more than the 4% swing the Conservatives required if they were to win the next general election. This was the 14th seat that Labour had lost in a by-election since the 1966 general election. A report in the following day's ''The

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'' argued the Liberal Party's "big challenge" in Swindon "possibly contributed to Labour's defeat", but also blamed "the Government's neglect of the constituency, having left it vacant since February." At the following year's general election, Stoddart stood again as Labour's candidate and this time defeated Ward with a majority of 5,576 votes.

References

Swindon by-election Politics of the Borough of Swindon Swindon by-election Swindon by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Wiltshire constituencies 20th century in Wiltshire {{England-UK-Parl-by-election-stub