Sheffield Brightside by-election, 1968
Encyclopedia
The Sheffield Brightside by-election
of 15 June 1968 was held after the death of Labour
MP
(MP) Richard Winterbottom
:
The seat was very safe, having been won by Labour at the United Kingdom general election, 1966
by over 19,000 votes
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
of 15 June 1968 was held after the death of Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MP) Richard Winterbottom
Richard Winterbottom
Richard Emanuel Winterbottom was a British Labour Party politician.Born in Oldham, Lancashire, Winterbottom served in the Royal Navy during World War I. He became an area organiser for a predecessor of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers in 1931, then the national organiser in 1944...
:
The seat was very safe, having been won by Labour at the United Kingdom general election, 1966
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...
by over 19,000 votes
Candidates
- Labour chose Edward GriffithsEdward GriffithsEdward Griffiths was a British Labour politician and director of the British Steel Association.Griffiths was elected Member of Parliament for Sheffield Brightside in a 1968 by-election...
to defend their seat, who was an industrial chemist and a worker director at the British Steel Corporation - Colin RenfrewColin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of KaimsthornAndrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Ph.D., FBA, FSA, HonFSAScot is a prominent British archaeologist and highly regarded academic, noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites...
, for the Conservatives, was lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Sheffield - Robert Wilkinson was chosen as the candidate for the Communists
- Ronald Guest, and Lt-Col H L Lambert, stood as independents.