2006 Dunfermline and West Fife by-election
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Dunfermline and West Fife parliamentary seat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Dunfermline and West Fife by-election was held on 9 February 2006, following the death of the sitting Labour MP Rachel Squire, on 6 January. The by-election was the first seat to change hands in the 2005 Parliament, when Willie Rennie won the seat for the Liberal Democrats, gaining it from Labour by 1,800 votes. The BBC reported a swing from Labour to the Liberal Democrats of 16.24%.[1]
It was the first time Labour had lost a seat at a Westminster by-election in Scotland since the Scottish National Party won the Glasgow Govan by-election in 1988, and the first time Labour had ever lost to the Liberal Democrats, or their predecessors the Liberal Party, in a Scottish Westminster by-election. The by-election took place in the middle of a leadership election for the Liberal Democrats, and the party was perceived in the media to be declining in the polls as a result of negative publicity surrounding the resignation of former leader Charles Kennedy, as well as revelations about the private lives of Mark Oaten and Simon Hughes.
The
Labour gained the seat back at the 2010 general election, with the Liberal Democrats in second place.[2]
Campaign
The Courier reported on 23 January[3] that leaked minutes of a meeting on 11 January at Westminster revealed that "senior Scottish Liberal Democrats do not believe their party has any chance of winning the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election", and that "their aim is to beat the SNP rather than topple Labour". This suggestion was backed up on 27 January by a poll in The Daily Telegraph that put the Lib Dems at 13% UK-wide (down 9% on Election 2005), their worst position since the 2001 general election.
The by-election electorate for the constituency was 72,225, a slight increase (of 2.04%) on the general election in May 2005.
Implications (for UK and Scottish elections)
The constituency neighbours Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, the seat of Gordon Brown, former Leader of the Labour Party and Prime Minister. Brown actually lived in the Dunfermline and West Fife constituency; he was Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time. The constituency is also near to North East Fife, then the constituency of Sir Menzies Campbell, acting leader of the Liberal Democrats at the time. Prior to the election, it was speculated that a poor showing for either party in the vicinity of Brown and/or Campbell's political bases could impact upon their chances of winning their respective parties' leaderships.
The result of this Westminster by-election were seen as a
Immediately after the election, the Liberal Democrats claimed that the results showed they were the challengers to the Labour Party, and that the Conservatives had failed their first electoral test under their new leader, David Cameron.
Result
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Liberal Democrats | Willie Rennie | 12,391 | 35.8 | +15.6 | |
Labour | Catherine Stihler | 10,591 | 30.6 | -16.8 | |
SNP | Douglas Chapman
|
7,261 | 21.0 | +2.1 | |
Conservative | Carrie Ruxton | 2,702 | 7.8 | -2.5 | |
Scottish Socialist | John McAllion | 537 | 1.6 | 0.0 | |
Scottish Christian
|
George Hargreaves | 411 | 1.2 | New | |
Abolish Forth Bridge Tolls Party | Tom Minogue | 374 | 1.1 | New | |
UKIP
|
Ian Borland | 208 | 0.6 | -0.9 | |
Common Good | Dick Rodgers | 103 | 0.3 | New | |
Majority | 1,800 | 5.2 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 34,578 | 47.9 | -12.0 | ||
Liberal Democrats gain from Labour | Swing | +16.2 |
Previous election
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Rachel Squire | 20,111 | 47.4 | -7.1 | |
Liberal Democrats | David Herbert | 8,549 | 20.2 | +5.9 | |
SNP | Douglas Chapman
|
8,026 | 18.9 | +1.1 | |
Conservative | Roger Smillie | 4,376 | 10.3 | +0.6 | |
Scottish Socialist | Susan Archibald | 689 | 1.6 | -0.8 | |
UKIP
|
Ian Borland | 643 | 1.5 | +0.1 | |
Majority | 11,562 | 27.2 | -12.9 | ||
Turnout | 42,394 | 59.9 | +2.3 | ||
Labour hold | Swing | -6.5 |
See also
References
- ^ "Lib Dems deliver blow to Labour". BBC News. 10 February 2006.
- ^ "Dunfermline and West Fife (Constituency) 2010 results - General election results - UK Parliament". electionresults.parliament.uk. Retrieved 18 June 2021.
- ^ "Courier News Story". Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 23 January 2006.
- ^ "Labour accused of 'fix' over candidate - [Sunday Herald]". Archived from the original on 5 February 2006. Retrieved 29 January 2006.
- ^ "Courier News Story". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 29 January 2006.
- ^ "politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Were the pollsters the other losers on Thursday?".
- ^ Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 2005-2010 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Archived from the original on 27 December 2015. Retrieved 5 October 2015.