'Revealing': Lord Hodgson reviews 'British By-Elections 1769–2025'
October 1976: Margaret Thatcher chats to gun-toting Carl Tonks whilst campaigning in Walsall North | Image by: Associated Press / Alamy
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As the latest anthology edited by Iain Dale makes clear, by-elections are frequently enlightening and colourful affairs
It would be easy to conclude that a book of 732 pages on British by-elections could only be of interest to the ‘political anorak’. Easy, but inaccurate, because in those famous words from the masthead of the News of the World, “All Human Life is Here”.
General election campaigns are so extensive that a great deal of the colour is leached out. Not so in by-elections where single issues and individual personalities can be seen in forensic detail.
John Barnes, who has written the chapter on the 1976 Walsall North by-election – just one of the 88 featured – is not only a distinguished academic, he fought the seat in three general elections and married into a leading Walsall family. Accordingly, he has a sure descriptive and analytical touch.
But, as no doubt is always the case, this by-election had two campaigns. The first conducted by the party leadership, like generals in the comfort of the chateaux some way behind the front line looking at the broad sweep of political events. And the other, the harassed life of the candidate, the second lieutenant, in the trenches with his small platoon of helpers dealing with the ebb and flow of day-to-day campaigning.
And as a campaign it had everything: it had foreign press interest (the previous MP John Stonehouse had disappeared in Miami after attempting to fake his own death and had reappeared in Melbourne). It had mistaken identity (the Australian police at first thought they had found Lord Lucan). It had sex (a mistress and a long-suffering wife). It had money (or the lack of it, which was finally Stonehouse’s undoing). And there was treachery (the Czech secret service was allegedly paying Stonehouse).
This book will open the door to a world where the efforts of individual men and women to win public acceptance for their views are laid bare
Add in a campaign appearance by the-then leader of the opposition Margaret Thatcher, an increasingly combative leader, and a Labour government in crisis – needing a financial bailout – and the stage was set for three weeks of particularly frenetic activity, most of which passed in a blur.
Two episodes stand out for me. A walkabout in the constituency with Mrs Thatcher with a rolling scrum of photographers and journalists and few actual electors. At one point she went into a butcher’s shop to buy two pork chops (for her supper with her husband Denis) for which she insisted on paying but which she then handed to me to carry for the rest of the day.
Second, the decision by Ted Heath – the recently deposed leader – to invite himself to join the campaign. The generals in the chateaux were very nervous that he might use this as a platform to relaunch his campaign for a Party of National Unity – very definitely not part of the Conservative Party’s message.
So this very young and inexperienced candidate was told it was his responsibility to sort this out with the ex-prime minister. To my relief, Ted was gracious and co-operative – the fact that I had ensured that a bottle of Glenfiddich malt whisky, known to be his favourite tipple, was on the table may have helped.
One point of correction: John Barnes makes much of the role of former mayor Sid Wright standing as an Independent candidate and it certainly disconcerted the local Labour Party. But if every vote cast for him had switched to the Labour candidate, it would still have been a Conservative victory.
For those who think politics is a dry affair, of interest only to the committed, this book will open the door to a world where the efforts of individual men and women to win public acceptance for their views are laid bare – the warp and weft of a democratic system in action.
Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts is a Conservative peer and victor of the 1976 Walsall North by-election
British By-Elections 1769–2025: The 88 By-Election Campaigns That Shaped Our Politics
By: Iain Dale
Publisher: Biteback
