1986 Ryedale by-election - Misplaced Pages

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1986 Ryedale by-election

← 1983

8 May 1986

1987 →

Constituency of Ryedale

Turnout

67.3% (

4.5%)

	First party	Second party	Third party
		Con	Lab
Candidate	Elizabeth Shields	Neil Balfour	Shirley Haines
Party	Liberal	Conservative	Labour
Popular vote	27,612	22,672	4,633
Percentage	50.3%	41.3%	8.4%
Swing	19.8%	17.9%	1.9%

MP before election

John Spence
Conservative

Subsequent MP

Elizabeth Shields
Liberal

The 1986 Ryedale by-election took place on 8 May 1986. The election was held on the same day as the 1986 local elections and the West Derbyshire by-election

It is the latest by-election to have just three candidates standing.

The seat was regained by the Conservatives the next year at the 1987 general election by John Greenway.

Background

In the spring of 1986 unemployment began rising at a greater rate than in previous years and the Conservative loss at Ryedale was a factor (according to Nigel Lawson) in "even committed supporters of the Government's economic strategy...insisting that reducing unemployment should now have priority".

Result

Ryedale by-election, 1986
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal (Alliance)	Elizabeth Shields	27,612	50.28	+19.8
	Conservative	Neil Balfour	22,672	41.28	−17.9
	Labour	Shirley Haines	4,633	8.44	−1.9
Majority			4,940	9.00	N/A
Turnout			54,917	67.3	−4.5
	Liberal gain from Conservative		Swing	+19.0

Previous General election

General election 1983: Ryedale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Conservative	John Spence	33,312	59.2
	Alliance (Liberal)	Elizabeth Shields	17,170	30.5
	Labour	P Bloom	5,816	10.3
Majority			16,142	28.7
Turnout			56,838
	Conservative win (new seat)

Notes

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 2)

Nigel Lawson, The View from No. 11. Memoirs of a Tory Radical (Bantam, 1992), p. 641.
Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1983-87 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 5 April 2018. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
Chris Cook and John Ramsden (eds.), By-elections in British Politics (Routledge, 1997), p. 11.

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1983	July: Penrith and the Border
1984	March: Chesterfield May: Cynon Valley South West Surrey Stafford June: Portsmouth South December: Enfield Southgate
1985	July: Brecon and Radnor December: Tyne Bridge
1986	January: Belfast East Belfast North Belfast South East Antrim East Londonderry Fermanagh & South Tyrone Lagan Valley Mid Ulster Newry & Armagh North Antrim North Down South Antrim South Down Strangford Upper Bann April: Fulham May: Ryedale West Derbyshire July: Newcastle-under-Lyme November: Knowsley North
1987	February: Greenwich March: Truro
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Background

Result

Previous General election

See also

Notes