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 ...

for the House of Commons constituency of

Hartlepool Hartlepool () is a seaside and port town in County Durham, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Borough of Hartlepool. With an estimated population of 90,123, it is the second-largest settlement in County ...

in the former county of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, was held on 6 May 2021. The by-election was triggered following the resignation of

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) Mike Hill, who resigned over allegations of sexual harassment. It was held on 6 May 2021 alongside

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

to the

Borough Council A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

Tees Valley Mayor The Mayor of the Tees Valley, styled as the Tees Valley Mayor, is a combined authority metro mayor, first elected in May 2017. The mayor is leader of the Tees Valley Combined Authority. The office was created under the Cities and Local Governm ...

, and

Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner The Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner is the police and crime commissioner (PCC), an elected official tasked with setting out the way crime is tackled by Cleveland Police in the area of the former county of Cleveland Cleveland ( ), o ...

. The seat is part of the " red wall", a set of constituencies that historically supported the Labour Party but where the party is being challenged by increasing Conservative support. This was the first by-election to the parliament elected in 2019. The 21-month gap between the last by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire in August 2019 and the polling day of the by-election in Hartlepool was the longest since

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The 21-month gap was partially attributed to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The

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 i ...

candidate,

Jill Mortimer Jillian Wendy Mortimer (née Sowerby; born 20 March 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Hartlepool since 2021. Personal life Mortimer was born Jillian Wendy Sowerby on 20 March 1965 in Lee ...

, won the by-election with 51.9% of the vote and a swing from

of almost 16%. It became only the second time since 1982 that the governing party gained a seat in a by-election, and the first Conservative win in the constituency since its creation in 1974, with a majority of 6,940 votes.

Background

Constituency

Hartlepool, named after the town of the same name, had been held by the Labour Party since

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

. The seat includes the town of Hartlepool itself and the nearby villages of

Hart Hart often refers to: * Hart (deer) Hart may also refer to: Organizations * Hart Racing Engines, a former Formula One engine manufacturer * Hart Skis, US ski manufacturer * Hart Stores, a Canadian chain of department stores * Hart's Reptile W ...

, Elwick, Greatham,

Newton Bewley Newton Bewley is a village and civil parish in the borough of Hartlepool and the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated between the towns of Hartlepool and Billingham. The postal area code is TS22 for Teesside but uses a Sedg ...

and

Dalton Piercy Dalton Piercy is a village and civil parish in the borough of Hartlepool, County Durham, in England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 Cernsus was 289. Location Dalton Piercy is situated 1 mile east of the A19 and 1 mile to ...

. In the 2016 European Union membership referendum, the Hartlepool Council area, which covers the same area as the constituency, voted 69.6% to 30.4% to leave the European Union (EU). Greatham, Hartlepool, UK

History

Former MPs have included

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

officer

John Kerans Commander John Simon Kerans (30 June 191512 September 1985) was an officer in the Royal Navy and later a Conservative Party politician. He is also the author of the 1964 book ''The World's Greatest Sea Adventures'', Publisher: Odhams Books Ltd ...

and former cabinet minister

Peter Mandelson Peter Benjamin Mandelson, Baron Mandelson (born 21 October 1953) is a British Labour Party politician who served as First Secretary of State from 2009 to 2010. He was President of the Board of Trade in 1998 and from 2008 to 2010. He is the ...

. The 2004 by-election saw a large swing to the Liberal Democrats, while 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 ...

came in a close second place at the 2015 general election. Hill was due to face an employment tribunal later in the year following allegations of sexual harassment and victimisation. Hill was suspended from the Labour Party in September 2019 over allegations of sexual harassment, but reinstated in October 2019. In January 2020, Hill's request for anonymity was turned down in an upcoming

employment tribunal Employment tribunals are tribunal public bodies in England and Wales and Scotland which have statutory jurisdiction to hear many kinds of disputes between employers and employees. The most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, red ...

related to the accusations. The alleged victim stated that she had also made a report to the

Metropolitan Police The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), formerly and still commonly known as the Metropolitan Police (and informally as the Met Police, the Met, Scotland Yard, or the Yard), is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement and ...

at the time of the original accusations. On 16 March 2021, Hill announced his resignation with immediate effect.

Candidates and timetable

There were sixteen candidates, the most for any UK Commons by-election since Haltemprice & Howden in 2008. The full list was published on 8 April 2021.

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

doctor and former MP Paul Williams was selected on 18 March as the Labour candidate. Williams represented the nearby constituency of Stockton South but lost his seat at the 2019 election. He had been standing for the position of

, to be elected in May 2021, but withdrew from that contest in order to stand in Hartlepool. On 17 March,

Reform UK Reform UK is a right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was briefly a significant po ...

leader

Richard Tice Richard James Sunley Tice (born 13 September 1964) is a British businessman and right wing politician who has been Leader of Reform UK since 6 March 2021. Tice was CEO of the real estate group CLS Holdings from 2010 to 2014, after which he bec ...

, who contested the seat in 2019, told

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadcast ...

that the party intended to stand a candidate. On 31 March, the party selected businessman John Prescott (no relation to the former deputy prime minister of the same name) as their candidate. He was the party's candidate for Stockton South in the 2019 election, under its previous name of the Brexit Party. The

Northern Independence Party The Northern Independence Party (NIP) is a minor secessionist and democratic socialist political party that seeks to make Northern England an independent nation, under the name of Northumbria. Founded in October 2020 by lecturer and former Labour ...

(NIP) announced on 17 March that they would contest the by-election. Later that month, they selected as their candidate former Labour MP

Thelma Walker Thelma Doris Walker (born 7 April 1957) is a British politician, formerly the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Colne Valley from 2017 to 2019. Before her political career, she worked as a teacher for 34 years and later as an independ ...

, who represented the

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

constituency of

Colne Valley The Colne Valley is a steep sided valley on the east flank of the Pennine Hills in the English county of West Yorkshire. It takes its name from the River Colne which rises above the town of Marsden and flows eastward towards Huddersfield. ...

, but lost her seat at the 2019 election. Due to the NIP not being registered with the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

by the deadline on 8 April, Walker is listed on ballot as 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 ...

. On 20 March, the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP) announced their intention to stand in the by-election. On 29 March, the SDP announced that its candidate would be David Bettney, a former

regimental sergeant major Regimental sergeant major (RSM) is an appointment that may be held by warrant officers class 1 (WO1) in the British Army, the British Royal Marines and in the armies of many other Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, including Australi ...

in the

Light Dragoons The Light Dragoons (LD) is a cavalry regiment in the British Army. The regiment has a light cavalry role and specialises in mounted and dismounted reconnaissance. The Light Dragoons recruit mainly in Northern England, from the counties of Northu ...

. On 22 March, Gemma Evans from the

Women's Equality Party The Women's Equality Party (WEP) is a feminist political party set up in the United Kingdom in 2015. The idea was conceived by Catherine Mayer and Sandi Toksvig at the Women of the World Festival, when they concluded that there was a need for ...

expressed her intention to stand. On 24 March, the

North East Party The North East Party (NEP) is a regionalist political party in North East England founded in 2014 by 16 people including the former Labour MP Hilton Dawson and 7 members of the FAIR party. The party campaigns for a better deal for North East En ...

announced that former Labour MP and founding party member

Hilton Dawson Thomas Hilton Dawson (born 30 September 1953) is a British politician who was the Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Lancaster and Wyre from 1997 until 2005. Dawson became the chairman of the North East Party in 2014, and was the par ...

would be their candidate for the by-election. On 26 March, 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 ...

selected farmer and

Hambleton District Hambleton is a local government district in North Yorkshire, England. The administrative centre is Northallerton, and the district includes the outlying towns and villages of Bedale, Thirsk, Great Ayton, Stokesley, and Easingwold. The dist ...

Cllr Jill Mortimer as their candidate in the by-election. She was previously the Conservative candidate in

Leeds East Leeds East is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2015 by Richard Burgon of the Labour Party. The constituency is notable for having been represented by Denis Healey who was the MP from 1955 to 1992. ...

at the 2019 election. Incumbent Conservative

Ben Houchen Ben Houchen (born 9 December 1986) is an English politician serving as the Tees Valley Mayor since May 2017. A member of the Conservative Party, Houchen represents the five Tees Valley local authority areas of Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Te ...

was reportedly unhappy with the choice of candidate due to her not being from the area, declining to endorse Mortimer at the time of her selection. On 31 March, 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 ...

selected party treasurer Nick "The Incredible Flying Brick" Delves as their candidate. On 2 April, local pub owner Adam Gaines announced his intention to stand as an independent candidate. On the same day, the Liberal Democrats selected schoolteacher Andy Hagon as their candidate. Hagon was the party's candidate for the constituency at both the 2017 and 2019 elections. On 6 April, former journalist and local businesswoman Samantha Lee announced her intention to stand as an independent candidate lobbying for Hartlepool to be awarded freeport status. On 7 April, Rachel Featherstone, a lecturer at

Teesside University , mottoeng = Deeds Not Words , established = 1930 – Constantine Technical College1969 – as Teesside Polytechnic 1992 – gained university status , type = Public , endowment = £0.23 m (2019/20) , chancellor ...

, was selected as 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 ...

candidate. Featherstone was previously her party's candidate for

Sunderland Central Sunderland Central is a constituency in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. It is represented by the Labour Party MP Julie Elliott, who has held the seat since its creation in 2010. Constituency profile The Sunderland Central constitue ...

in 2015, 2017, and 2019, and was top of the Green Party list in

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

at the

2019 European election The 2019 European Parliament election was held between 23 and 26 May 2019, the ninth parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979. A total of 751 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent more than 512 million peopl ...

. On 8 April, London-based businessman Ralph Ward-Jackson, descendant of

West Hartlepool West Hartlepool was a predecessor of Hartlepool, County Durham, England. It developed in the Victorian era and took the name from its western position in the parish of what is now known as the Headland. The former town was originally formed in ...

founder and 19th century Conservative MP for

The Hartlepools The Hartlepools was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament. The constituency became Hartlepool in 1974. The seat's name reflected the representation of both old Hartlepool and West Hartlepool. Hist ...

Ralph Ward Jackson Ralph Ward Jackson (7 June 1806, Normanby – 6 August 1880, London)Boase, F., ''Modern English biography'', 6 vols, 1892-1921 was a British railway promoter, entrepreneur and politician. He founded West Hartlepool, England in the 19th century. ...

, declared that he had filed to run, citing the town's lack of a hospital and closure of the magistrates' court. Ward-Jackson had previously been selected by the local Conservative Party to contest the seat at the 2019 general election, but withdrew to support the

Brexit Party Reform UK is a Right-wing populism, right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded with support from Nigel Farage in November 2018 as the Brexit Party, advocating hard Euroscepticism and a no-deal Brexit, and was bri ...

Campaign

Labour was criticised for the conduct of its selection process, which gave candidates one day to submit application papers. An unnamed Labour MP accused Labour's leadership of a "stitch-up", and alleged that the speed of Labour's selection had disadvantaged local party members.

Labour leader The ''Labour Leader'' was a British socialist newspaper published for almost one hundred years. It was later renamed ''New Leader'' and ''Socialist Leader'', before finally taking the name ''Labour Leader'' again. 19th century The origins of the ...

Keir Starmer Sir Keir Rodney Starmer (; born 2 September 1962) is a British politician and barrister who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Holborn and St Pancras ...

said that the local party had written to Labour headquarters to identify Paul Williams as their preferred choice. While Williams was a vocal advocate of a second referendum on EU membership, the constituency of Hartlepool supported Brexit by almost 70%, leading to criticism after he deleted his pro-EU tweets before his candidacy. During the by-election campaign, Williams apologised for a tweet he posted in 2011: "Do you have a favourite Tory

MILF MILF (, as if read as "milf") is an acronym that stands for "Mother I'd Like to Fuck". This abbreviation is used in colloquial English, instead of the whole phrase. It connotes an older woman considered sexually attractive, typically one who has ...

? Mind-blowing dinner table conversation". He was defended by Starmer, while Labour peer and former shadow Attorney General

Shami Chakrabarti Sharmishta "Shami" Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti, (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes ...

called for him to be replaced "immediately". Williams' campaign featured a pledge to return hospital services to the town, but was accused of hypocrisy after it emerged that he was a co-author of a clinical commissioning group report which recommended the closure of those services in 2013. Early in the by-election campaign, Conservative candidate Jill Mortimer was criticised for being based in

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is the largest ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county (lieutenancy area) in England, covering an area of . Around 40% of the county is covered by National parks of the United Kingdom, national parks, including most of ...

. When asked if Hartlepool was somewhere she spent a lot of time, Mortimer replied: "It hasn't been up until now, but it will be". Later in the campaign, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party

Angela Rayner Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021. She has been Shad ...

accused Mortimer of corruption. In a letter to

Conservative Party Chairman The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office. When the Conservatives are in government, the offic ...

Amanda Milling Amanda Anne Milling (born 12 March 1975) is a British politician serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Cannock Chase since the 2015 general election. She served as Minister without Portfolio in the UK cabinet and, alongside Ben Elliot, as C ...

, Rayner requested the publication of a "full account" of Mortimer's time living in the

Cayman Islands The Cayman Islands () is a self-governing British Overseas Territory—the largest by population in the western Caribbean Sea. The territory comprises the three islands of Grand Cayman, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman, which are located to the ...

. Milling described Rayner's accusation as a "desperate attack" that was "factually wrong and entirely disingenuous". The by-election attracted considerable political attention, with Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

and

campaigning in the town for the Conservatives, while

, members of his Shadow Cabinet, and the wider Labour frontbench campaigned in the town for Labour. Campaigning was suspended for the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. On 22 April, it was reported that Independent candidate Chris Killick is a convicted sex offender. He filmed a 62-second clip of a naked woman in her hotel room while she was unconscious in 2015; she said she woke up to Killick not knowing who he was or how she arrived in the hotel, and said that she was drugged and raped. In 2020, Killick was given a 30-month community order and fined £2,000, and ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation to his victim. Killick did not mention his conviction on any election form or to those who signed his nomination papers, describing his candidacy as "an experiment to see how much publicity I can get. Not by speaking about the offence I committed, but by speaking about the stuff I really care about." In response, 1,400 people signed an online petition calling for the government to prohibit sex offenders from standing for public office.

Opinion polls

Results

The result was the biggest swing towards an incumbent governing party in a by-election in the post war era; the record was formerly the 1945 Bournemouth by-election.

Previous result

Aftermath

The election result was widely seen as a blow to

, the incumbent leader of the Labour Party. While

put the blame on former leader

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

, and argued the party had not changed enough, some figures on the Labour left regarded the defeat as a repudiation of Starmer's centrist vision for Labour. Attention was especially focused on the idea that voters did not know what Starmer stood for, a conclusion Williams and Labour deputy leader

both agreed with. On 23 August, ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'' reported that

may have breached the

Ministerial Code The Ministerial Code is a document setting out "rules" and standards for government ministers in the United Kingdom. Separate codes exist for ministers of the Scottish Government, the Northern Ireland Executive (based on the St Andrews Agreemen ...

by using taxpayer funds to take a

private jet A business jet, private jet, or bizjet is a jet aircraft designed for transporting small groups of people. Business jets may be adapted for other roles, such as the evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and some are used by pub ...

to campaign in Hartlepool.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartlepool by-election, 2021 2021 elections in the United Kingdom 2021 in England By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Durham constituencies 2021 Hartlepool Politics of the Borough of Hartlepool 2020s in County Durham