1979 South West Hertfordshire by-election

1979 South West Hertfordshire by-election

13 December 1979
South West Hertfordshire constituency
Turnout	48.3% 31.4pp
First party Second party Third party   CON LAB LIB Candidate Richard Page Susan Ann Reeves Dane Clouston Party Conservative Labour Liberal Popular vote 17,031 10,259 8,752 Percentage 45.9% 27.7% 23.6% Swing 7.6 pp 0.1 pp 7.4 pp
MP before election Geoffrey Dodsworth Conservative Subsequent MP Richard Page Conservative

The 1979 South West Hertfordshire by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 December 1979 for the British House of Commons constituency of South West Hertfordshire.

Previous MP

The seat fell vacant when the constituency's Conservative Member of Parliament (MP), Geoffrey Hugh Dodsworth (born 7 June 1928) resigned due to ill health. On 24 October 1979 he was appointed Steward of the Chiltern Hundreds, a notional office of profit under the Crown, in order to vacate his Parliamentary seat.

He is an accountant, who had contested Don Valley in 1959 and Hartlepool in 1964. He had represented South West Hertfordshire from the February 1974 general election.

Candidates

Six candidates were nominated. The list below is set out in descending order of the number of votes received at the by-election.

1. The Conservative candidate was Richard Lewis Page (born on 22 February 1941), a mechanical engineer and company director. He served previously as MP for Workington, between winning a 1976 by-election and being defeated at the 1979 general election. Page had also contested Workington in the February 1974 and October 1974 general elections, at the time represented by senior Labour cabinet minister, Fred Peart.

After winning this by-election he was a junior minister under John Major. He stepped down from the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.

2. Mrs Susan A. Reeves was the Labour candidate. She was a housewife and had worked as a child guidance officer, although by 1983 she was working as a teacher and speech therapist. She was born on 31 March 1943. She contested the Chelmsford constituency in the 1979 general election, Stevenage in 1983 and Suffolk Coastal in 1987.

3. The Liberal Party candidate was Dane S.C. Clouston, who in 1974 was a mature student and former banker. He was born in September 1938 and had contested the Newbury seat in the 1970, February 1974 and October 1974 general elections.

4. N.R. Jeskins was the Ecology Party candidate.

5. D.W. Bundy represented the Anti Common Market and Free Trade Party.

6. N.Q. Ffooks was an Independent, using the ballot paper label "Father Christmas: support Southampton University Rag".

Result

By-election 13 December 1979: South West Hertfordshire

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Richard Page	17,031	45.9	8.8
	Labour	Susan Ann Reeves	10,259	27.7	0.1
	Liberal	Dane Clouston	8,752	23.6	7.4
	Ecology	Nigel Jeskins	602	1.6	New
	ACMFT	David Bundy	288	0.8	New
	Independent	Nigel Ffooks	143	0.4	New
Majority			6,772	18.3	8.7
Turnout			37,075	48.3	31.4
	Conservative hold		Swing	3.8
Registered electors			76,776

See also

• South West Hertfordshire constituency
• List of United Kingdom by-elections
• United Kingdom by-election records

References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons, October 1974, 1979 and 1983 editions