The Barking by-election was held on 9 June 1994, following the death of Labour Party

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 ...

for Barking Jo Richardson. Richardson had represented the seat since the February 1974 general election, following Tom Driberg. The seat had been continuously held by Labour since it was created in 1945, and Richardson had retained her seat comfortably at the 1992 general election with an increased majority of over 6,000. Margaret Hodge, leader of Islington London Borough Council from 1982 to 1992, was selected as the Labour candidate and was the clear favourite to hold the seat at the

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 ...

. 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 ...

had taken second place in 1992. John Kennedy, the candidate in 1992, was not selected to fight the 1994 by-election, the Conservative nomination going instead to

Theresa May Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cab ...

. She had been a councillor in the

London Borough of Merton The London Borough of Merton () is a borough in Southwest London, England. The borough was formed under the London Government Act 1963 in 1965 by the merger of the Municipal Borough of Mitcham, the Municipal Borough of Wimbledon and the Mer ...

from 1986 to 1994, and had stood (and lost) in the safe Labour seat of North West Durham in 1992. Having lost two of the three previous by-elections of the Parliament to the Liberal Democrats, and failing to challenge Labour in the third, the Conservatives were not hopeful of gaining ground. The Liberal Democrat candidate, Steve Churchman, had taken little more than a tenth of the votes cast in 1992, continuing a downward track since 1983. A new candidate, Garry White, at 21 the youngest parliamentary by-election candidate chosen by a British political party since

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political sta ...

, was chosen for the by-election. Three other candidates stood: Gary Needs of the National Front, Gerard Batten of the

UK Independence Party The UK Independence Party (UKIP; ) is a Eurosceptic, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. The party reached its greatest level of success in the mid-2010s, when it gained two members of Parliament and was the largest par ...

(UKIP), and HR Butensky of the

Natural Law Party The Natural Law Party (NLP) is a transnational party founded in 1992 on "the principles of Transcendental Meditation", the laws of nature, and their application to all levels of government. At its peak, it was active in up to 74 countries; it co ...

Results

As expected, Hodge won the seat easily, with the Labour majority almost doubling, despite a turnout below 40%. The Liberal Democrats share of the votes declined slightly, but they still managed to push the Conservatives into third place, as they had a month before in

Rotherham Rotherham () is a large minster and market town in South Yorkshire, England. The town takes its name from the River Rother which then merges with the River Don. The River Don then flows through the town centre. It is the main settlement of ...

. The other three candidates all lost their deposits.

Legacy

At the 1997 UK general election, Hodge retained the seat with an increased majority. May went on to be elected as MP for

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

in 1997 and then became

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...

in 2016. Two other candidates in Barking in 1994 also stood in 1997: Needs contested Devon East for the National Democrats, and Batten contested

Harlow Harlow is a large town and local government district located in the west of Essex, England. Founded as a new town, it is situated on the border with Hertfordshire and London, Harlow occupies a large area of land on the south bank of the uppe ...

for UKIP: both again secured only a few hundred votes. Batten was elected as a UKIP

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

for

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

in 2004. Batten and May both appeared on a ballot paper together again, 23 years later, when Batten stood against her in Maidenhead at the 2017 general election. Batten later became the Leader of the

in 2018.

References

External links

United Kingdom Election Results – London Borough, 1983–97
Election Demon {{By-elections to the 51st UK Parliament Barking by-election Barking by-election Barking,1994 Politics of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham Barking, London Barking by-election

Results

Legacy

See also

References

External links