Newbury by-election, 1993

The Newbury by-election, in West Berkshire, England, was held on 6 May 1993 after Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Judith Chaplin died, after only being elected the previous year. It was won by David Rendel of the Liberal Democrats with an impressive swing of 28.4%, and well over twice as many votes as the Conservative candidate. However, as with other by-elections, turnout was lower than at the general election at 71.3%.

The by-election in Newbury was the first by-election of the 1992–1997 parliament, and the first in a string of by-election losses for the Conservative Party who were in their fourth consecutive term of office. Up until 1993 the Newbury seat had been held by a Conservative MP since 1924. In the 2005 general election, however, the constituency returned to the Conservatives with the defeat of David Rendel and the election of Richard Benyon.

Many independent candidates, or candidates from newly formed or minor parties stood in the by-election, with three candidates standing on an anti-Maastricht Treaty platform. Andrew Bannon, a Labour member from Slough stood as a Conservative Candidate in protest at a Conservative member standing as a Labour Candidate in the 1992 general election in Slough.

All candidates must win at least 5% of the total votes to retain their deposit, which they must pay to stand for election. Therefore every candidate apart from David Rendel and Julian Davidson lost their deposit, including Labour's Steve Billcliffe.

The by-election achieved a record of 19 candidates, easily beating the previous high of seventeen at the Chesterfield by-election, 1984. It remained the longest ballot paper in any Parliamentary election until the Haltemprice and Howden by-election, 2008.

Results

Newbury by-election, 1993

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrat	David Rendel	37,590	65.1	+27.8
	Conservative	Julian Davidson	15,535	26.9	−29.0
	Labour	Steve Billcliffe	1,151	2.0	−4.0
	Anti-Federalist League	Alan Sked	601	1.0
	Conservative Candidate	Andrew Bannon	561	1.0
	Commoners' Party	Stephen Martin	435	0.8
	Monster Raving Loony	Lord David Sutch	432	0.7
	Green	Jim Wallis	341	0.6	−0.2
	Referendum Party	Robin Marlar	338	0.6
	Conservative Rebel	John Browne	267	0.5
	Corrective Party	Lindi St Clair	170	0.3
	Maastricht Referendum for Britain	Bill Board	84	0.1
	Natural Law	Michael Grenville	60	0.1
	People & Pensioners Party	Johnathon Day	49	0.1
	21st Century Independent Foresters	Colin Palmer	40	0.1
	Defence of Children's Humanity Bosnia	Mladen Grbin	33	0.1
	Social Democratic	Alan Page	33	0.1
	Communist (PCC)	Anne Murphy	32	0.1
	Give the royal billions to schools	Michael Stone	21	0.1
Majority			22 055	38.2
Turnout			57 399	71.3	−11.46
	Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative		Swing	28.4

General election result, 1992

This is the result of the 1992 general election in Newbury.

UK General Election: Newbury, 1992

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Judith Chaplin	37 135	55.9	−4.24
	Liberal Democrat	David Rendel	24 778	37.3	+5.57
	Labour	Richard J E Hall	3 962	6.0	−2.13
	Green	Jim Wallis	539	0.8	+0.8
Majority			12 357	18.61	−9.8
Turnout			66 414	82.76	+4.77
	Conservative hold		Swing

See also

• List of United Kingdom by-elections