1965 East Grinstead by-election facts for kids
The East Grinstead by-election in 1965 was a special election held for a place in the British Parliament. It took place on 4 February 1965, in the area known as East Grinstead.
This special election was needed because the person who used to represent East Grinstead, Evelyn Emmet, was given a new important role called a life peerage. This meant she became a member of the House of Lords, so she could no longer be a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons.
What Happened Before: The 1964 Election
To understand the by-election, it helps to look at the election that happened just before it, in 1964. In the general election of 1964, the people of East Grinstead voted for their MP.
- The Conservative Party candidate, Evelyn Emmet, won with 29,094 votes. She received about 53% of all the votes.
- The Liberal Party candidate, Richard Holme, came in second with 14,753 votes, which was about 27%.
- The Labour Party candidate, W Hill, got 10,859 votes, about 20%.
Evelyn Emmet won by a large number of votes, showing strong support for the Conservative Party in East Grinstead at that time.
The 1965 By-election Result
The by-election in 1965 was held to choose a new MP for East Grinstead. The Conservative Party managed to keep their seat.
- The new Conservative Party candidate was Geoffrey Johnson-Smith. He won the election with 24,896 votes, which was about 55% of the total votes. This was a slight increase in the percentage of votes for the Conservatives compared to the previous election.
- The Liberal Party candidate, Richard Holme, ran again and received 14,279 votes, about 31.5%. His percentage of votes went up from the last election.
- The Labour Party candidate, Jon Evans, got 6,101 votes, about 13.5%. Their percentage of votes went down quite a bit compared to 1964.
Geoffrey Johnson-Smith won with a lead of 10,617 votes over the Liberal candidate. The total number of votes cast in this by-election was 45,276.
