The Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election was a

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 ...

held on 13 February 2014 for the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

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, ...

Wythenshawe and Sale East Wythenshawe and Sale East is a parliamentary constituency in the city of Manchester and the borough of Trafford. It returns one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past ...

, following the death of the former MP,

Paul Goggins Paul Gerard Goggins (16 June 1953 – 7 January 2014) was a British Labour politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997 until his death in January 2014. He was also previously a Minister of Sta ...

. The election was won by

Mike Kane Michael Joseph Patrick Kane (born 9 January 1969) is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wythenshawe and Sale East since February 2014. He won the seat in the 2014 by-election, which was held follo ...

of the Labour Party with a greatly increased share of the vote compared with the 2010 general election.

UKIP 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 pa ...

, which had previously performed poorly, came second, beating the Conservative Party into third place. The Liberal Democrats lost their deposit. The turnout was 28.2%, compared with 54.3% for the 2010 general election.

Background

On 30 December 2013, Goggins became seriously ill after collapsing while running. He died in hospital on 7 January 2014 following complications from a brain haemorrhage.

Candidates and result

Applications to register to vote had to be received by

Manchester City Council Manchester City Council is the local authority for Manchester, a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. Manchester is the sixth largest city in England by population. Its city council is composed of 96 councillors, three ...

by 28 January. The Statement of Persons Nominated was published at 5 pm on 29 January 2014. The result was declared at around 2.30am GMT on Friday, 14 February. Mike Kane, a former Manchester councillor and the acting chief executive of Movement for Change, was confirmed as the Labour Party candidate, on 24 January. In a selection process described as "quick-fire",

London London is the capital and 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 down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

interviews on 22 January produced a short list of five local councillors and ex-councillors: Rosa Battle and Suzannah Reeves of

, Catherine Hynes and Sophie Taylor of Trafford Borough, and Mike Kane. The Wythenshawe branch of 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 ...

chose Daniel Critchlow, a Trafford-based vicar, on 23 January 2014. The Liberal Democrats chose a Manchester City councillor, Mary di Mauro, on 26 January 2014. On 24 January 2014, the

British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a far-right, fascist political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and its leader is Adam Walker. A minor party, it has no elected representatives at any level of UK gover ...

announced Eddy O'Sullivan as its candidate. O'Sullivan had been a candidate in Salford local elections and stood for the BNP at the

2012 Manchester Central by-election The Manchester Central by-election was a by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Manchester Central held on Thursday 15 November 2012. Lucy Powell of the Labour Party won with 69% of the vote (it has historically been a safe Labo ...

, where his party's share of the vote was reduced. 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 ...

selected John Bickley, 60, a former Labour supporter who grew up in Wythenshawe. Bickley, who runs a mobile app firm, told ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' that he felt Parliament needed to "take responsibility" having "outsourced running of the country to the EU". Bickley added that he felt "Labour had let down the working class" and that Labour's behaviour would mean his former

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

ist father would be "turning in his grave". The

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

selected Nigel Woodcock, a further education lecturer at

The Manchester College The Manchester College is the largest further education college in the United Kingdom and the largest single provider of 16-19, adult and higher education in Greater Manchester, with more than 25% of Greater Manchester’s learning provision un ...

. The

Official Monster Raving Loony Party The Official Monster Raving Loony Party (OMRLP) is a political party established in the United Kingdom in 1982 by the musician David Sutch, also known as "Screaming Lord Sutch, 3rd Earl of Harrow", or simply "Lord Sutch". It is notable for its ...

put forward Captain Chaplington-Smythe as its candidate on 25 January 2014.

Polling

Previous result

¹This is compared to Worthington's performance as the Socialist Alternative candidate at the prior election.

References

External links