1965 Leyton by-election
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21 January 1965
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Leyton constituency | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 57.7% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1965 Leyton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 21 January 1965 for the UK House of Commons constituency of Leyton, representing the town of Leyton in east London.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's long-serving Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP), Reginald Sorensen, was made a life peer on 15 December 1964. An MP for over thirty years, his elevation to the peerage was intended to create a vacancy in a safe seat for the Foreign Secretary, Patrick Gordon Walker, who had been defeated in a shock result in the 1964 general election in his Smethwick constituency.
The result of the contest was not as planned: the Conservative Party candidate, Ronald Buxton, won by 205 votes, a swing from Labour of 8.7%. Gordon Walker resigned as Foreign Secretary but regained the seat for Labour at the 1966 general election.[1][2]
Previous result
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Reginald Sorensen | 23,640 | 50.35 | −3.36 | |
| Conservative | Ronald Buxton | 15,714 | 33.47 | −12.82 | |
| Liberal | Alistair Mackay | 7,598 | 16.18 | New | |
| Majority | 7,926 | 16.88 | +9.46 | ||
| Turnout | 46,592 | 70.18 | −4.21 | ||
| Registered electors | 66,905 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -3.36 | |||
Result
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Ronald Buxton | 16,544 | 42.9 | +9.4 | |
| Labour | Patrick Gordon Walker | 16,339 | 42.4 | −8.0 | |
| Liberal | Alistair H Mackay | 5,382 | 14.0 | −2.2 | |
| UK & Commonwealth Party | Jeremiah Lynch | 157 | 0.4 | New | |
| Disarmament | George Delf | 156 | 0.4 | New | |
| Majority | 205 | 0.5 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 38,578 | 57.7 | −12.5 | ||
| Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | +8.7 | |||
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ "Great Britain: The Leyton Affair". Time. 29 January 1965. Retrieved 23 May 2026.
- ↑ Collinson, Marc (2 October 2022). ""The most astonishing election result since the war"? Re-examining the Leyton by-election of 1965". The Historian. 84 (4): 614–635. doi:10.1080/00182370.2023.2295150. ISSN 0018-2370.
- ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results October 1964". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ↑ The Times' Guide to the House of Commons. 1964.
