A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Eddisbury was held on 22 July 1999, following resignation of incumbent Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Alastair Goodlad upon his appointment as High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia. Stephen O'Brien won the by-election, holding the seat for the Conservatives.
On 25 May 1999, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced the appointment of Goodlad as High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia, creating a vacancy in the seat which he had retained as the Conservative candidate in the 1997 general election. Goodlad resigned from the House of Commons by accepting the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern on 28 June 1999 to formally vacate his seat.
The 1999 British cabinet reshuffle was delayed by a week in anticipation of a strong Labour performance in the by-election.
Candidates The Conservatives selected Stephen O'Brien, a former SDP member who lived in Chichester, to defend the seat. Labour nominated Margaret Hanson, wife of David Hanson (Labour MP for Delyn), who had also fought the seat at the 1997 election. Labour had been only just over 1,000 votes behind the Conservatives in 1997 and ran an energetic campaign, raising the issue of fox hunting which she pledged to ban. Prime Minister Tony Blair went to the constituency to campaign for her, an unusual move as it is convention for incumbent Prime Ministers not to visit byelection campaigns.
Polling day was 22 July and the result was a virtual carbon copy of that in 1997; each party had fought to a standstill.
Opinion polling Date(s)conductedPollsterClientSamplesizeConLabLib DemOthersLead1999 by-election–44.8%40.2%13.8%1.2%4.6%IpsosN/A50038%42%17%3%4%1997 general election–42.5%40.1%13.2%4.2%2.4% Result
Previous election
See also Eddisbury constituency Lists of United Kingdom by-elections
References
External links British Parliamentary By Elections: Campaign literature from the by-election