1999 Leeds Central by-election
UK Parliamentary by-election / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Member of Parliament for Leeds Central, Rt. Hon. Derek Fatchett, (Labour) died suddenly on 9 May 1999. The Labour government rushed to organise for the by-election and moved the writ so that the election could be held on 10 June, the same day as elections to the European Parliament.
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Turnout | 19.9% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The shortlist for the Labour candidacy included the Chair of Leeds Central Constituency Labour Party, Maggie Giles-Hill, and Shahid Malik, but the selection went to Hilary Benn who had been Special Adviser to David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment.[1] The Conservatives chose their general election candidate Edward Wild. The Liberal Democrats provided the strongest challenge and increased their vote by nearly 20%, but this was not enough to take the seat.[2]
The campaign was subsumed with the European Parliament elections, and the result was an all-time low turnout for a by-election:[citation needed] at 19.9% it held the record for the lowest turnout in a UK parliamentary election since World War II,[3] until surpassed in 2012 by the Manchester Central by-election.[citation needed]