The Rochdale by-election of 13 February 1958 was a
by-election for the constituency of
Rochdale, in
Lancashire,
England, in the
House of Commons. It was called following the death on 16 December 1957 of the sitting
Conservative Member of Parliament,
Wentworth Schofield.
This was the first British election to be televised, and
Liberal candidate
Ludovic Kennedy used his media experience to increase coverage of his campaign. Granada Television broadcast two debates between the candidates as well as the election count, and the BBC conducted many interviews with voters.
Rochdale in the 1950s: TV election – yet another first for pioneering town
(archived)
The election was won by the 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 ...
candidate, Jack McCann
John McCann (4 December 1910 – 16 July 1972) was a British politician, who served as the Labour Party (UK), Labour Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament for Rochdale (UK Parliament constituency), Rochdale.
McCann was ...
, with 22,000 votes, but Kennedy polled 17,603, the highest Liberal vote since the 1920s. The Conservative candidate, John Parkinson, was squeezed into third place with fewer than 10,000 votes.
Results
See also
* 1940 Rochdale by-election
The 1940 Rochdale by-election was a by-election held for the British House of Commons constituency of Rochdale in Lancashire on 20 July 1940.
Vacancy
The seat had become vacant when the Labour Member of Parliament William Kelly, had resign ...
, an unopposed war-time election
* 1972 Rochdale by-election
The 1972 Rochdale by-election, was a parliamentary by-election held on 26 October 1972 for the British House of Commons constituency of Rochdale.
The by-election took place during the 1970s Liberal revival, in one of the few
Labour-held seats in ...
* Rochdale
* List of United Kingdom by-elections
References
External links
British Parliamentary By Elections: Campaign literature from the by-election
Rochdale by-election
Rochdale by-election
1950s in Lancashire
Rochdale by-election
Elections in the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale
By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Greater Manchester constituencies
By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Lancashire constituencies
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