North Down by-election, 1995
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The 1995 North Down by-election, in the North Down constituency, was held on 15 June, following the death of James Kilfedder, who had represented the constituency since the 1970 general election. Kilfedder had formed the Ulster Popular Unionist Party in 1980, but the party disintegrated on his death.


History

The North Down constituency was created in 1950, and had consistently returned Unionist MPs with large majorities. It had also seen some of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland's strongest results, peaking at 22.1% of the vote in the
1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general e ...
, and in the 1992 general election, it had seen 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 ...
's best result in Northern Ireland, picking up 32.0% of the vote. In 1995, North Down was the wealthiest constituency in the province, and had one of the lowest Catholic populations. As a result, neither the Social Democratic and Labour Party nor Sinn Féin, the two parties most closely associated with the Catholic community in Northern Ireland, had regularly stood candidates in the constituency, and neither chose to stand in the by-election.


Candidates

Bob McCartney Robert McCartney was a Scottish footballer who played as a defender. He began and ended his senior career with Leith Athletic, spending his prime years at Heart of Midlothian where he won the Scottish Cup in 1896 and the Scottish Football Leag ...
had stood in the constituency for the Ulster Unionist Party in 1983, when he had come third with 20.3% of the vote. In 1987 he fell out with the party when he refused to withdraw and give Kilfedder a free run on a joint platform of opposition to the Anglo-Irish Agreement, instead running as a "Real Unionist". McCartney now announced his intention to stand in the election, as a UK Unionist. Despite their differences, he gained the tacit backing of the
Democratic Unionist Party The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) is a unionist, loyalist, and national conservative political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1971 during the Troubles by Ian Paisley, who led the party for the next 37 years. Currently led by J ...
, who had won only 9.8% of the vote in 1992 and chose not to stand their own candidate. The Ulster Unionist Party had not run a candidate in North Down since Bob McCartney in 1983, but they believed they were best placed to take Kilfedder's
personal vote Personal may refer to: Aspects of persons' respective individualities * Privacy * Personality * Personal, personal advertisement, variety of classified advertisement used to find romance or friendship Companies * Personal, Inc., a Washington, ...
. They chose to run
Alan McFarland Major (rank), Major Robert Alan McFarland (born 9 August 1949 in Plumbridge, County Tyrone) is an Independent Unionist politician in Northern Ireland, who was a Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) for North Down (Assembly constituency), Nort ...
, a former Army Officer and then Parliamentary secretary to some of their MPs, in preference to Reg Empey, one of their most prominent members. The Alliance Party selected Oliver Napier, their former party leader, hoping his experience and notability would regain some of the votes which they had lost in the 1992 election. The Conservative Party had suffered a dramatic loss of votes in the local elections, and their candidate in the 1992 election had moved away, but they chose Stuart Sexton, a member from Croydon in South London. Four other candidates stood. Alan Chambers, a local councillor, ran as an independent Unionist. 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 con ...
stood James Anderson, their leader in Northern Ireland, Michael Brooks who had previously stood as an "Ulster Protestant" candidate in the
1987 Irish general election The 1987 Irish general election was held on Tuesday, 17 February, four weeks after the dissolution of the Dáil on 20 January. A continuing crisis over public finance had led to the collapse of Garret FitzGerald's coalition government and the d ...
in Donegal North-East, stood on a platform to "Free Para
Lee Clegg Sergeant Lee Clegg (born c. 1969) is a British Army soldier who was convicted of murder for his involvement in the shooting dead of one teenage joyrider in West Belfast, Northern Ireland. His conviction was later overturned. Shooting The shooti ...
Now", and Christopher Carter stood as Ulster's Independent Voice. The big story of the campaign was from '' The Guardian'', who announced that if McCartney was elected, he would apply for the Labour Party
whip A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
, an unusual move for a unionist, who were more usually associated with the Conservatives.


Result

The results gave McCartney a win, which he claimed was a victory for left-right politics, as opposed to sectarian politics, with the Ulster Unionists a disappointed distant second. Shortly after the election, James Molyneaux retired as their leader, and was replaced by David Trimble. The Alliance came third, with their best ever share of the vote in the constituency. Chambers also saved his deposit, but the Conservatives received what was their worst vote in any UK Parliamentary election since 1918. The by-election was the first since the Fermanagh and South Tyrone by-election of April 1981 where a seat transferred between two candidates from outside the major parties, and the first since the North Down by-election of 1986 won by a minor party.


References


External links


Campaign literature from the by-election
{{By-elections to the 51st UK Parliament North Down by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in County Down constituencies 20th century in County Down 1995 elections in Northern Ireland North Down by-election