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Bermondsey By-election, 1983The Bermondsey byelection of February 24, 1983 occurred after the resignation of Robert Mellish, who had represented the constituency and its predecessors since 1946. Mellish, who had been Chief Whip until 1976, was increasingly disenchanted with the left-wing moves of the Labour Party and had announced his retirement from Parliament (effective at the next election) in 1981. He was recruited by the Conservative government to the board of the London Docklands Development Corporation; as he did not wish to be disqualified, the post was made non-salaried until such time as Mellish chose to accept payment. This meant that Mellish had a paid job to go to as soon as he wanted. Preliminaries On November 7, 1981 Bermondsey Labour Party selected Peter Tatchell, its Secretary, as prospective Parliamentary candidate. Tatchell was a leading member of the left-wing faction which had taken control of the party the previous year. He was also a contributor to London Labour Briefing, a magazine which circulated among the London left, and had written an article suggesting the use of extra-Parliamentary direct action by the Labour Party. This article came to the attention of James Wellbeloved, a London Labour MP who had defected to the SDP; Wellbeloved then referred to it in a Parliamentary Question to Margaret Thatcher on December 3. Labour Party leader Michael Foot then denounced the article and declared "the individual concerned is not an endorsed member of the Labour Party". He later changed "endorsed member" to "endorsed candidate", and at the next meeting of the Labour Party National Executive Committee Tatchell was narrowly rejected as a candidate. Mellish was not reassured about the future direction of the Labour Party and resigned from it on August 2, 1982, a clear preliminary to resigning his seat, which he did by taking the Chiltern Hundreds on November 1. The left-wing of the Labour Party, defending the right of Bermondsey to select a candidate of its own choosing, managed to get agreement that Tatchell would be eligible for selection, and he was duly selected again in January 1983. Tabloid newspapers opposed to the Labour left had begun investigating Tatchell's background when he was denounced by Michael Foot, and in particular his activities with the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. Several stories were published which made it inferentially clear that he was gay. Other candidates At the 1981 GLC election the Liberal Party had come second in Bermondsey. They chose their GLC candidate Simon Hughes, a Barrister who moved to the constituency earlier that year, to fight the byelection. The Conservatives chose Robert Hughes (no relation), who was a GLC Councillor in Croydon. Among those who applied for the Conservative nomination but were not chosen was Sarah Keays, then having an affair with Cecil Parkinson. The right-wing former Labour leader of Southwark Borough Council John O'Grady, who had been a target for the left-wing faction locally, also decided to stand under the banner 'Real Bermondsey Labour' with Robert Mellish's support and encouragement. His campaign was dominated by personal opposition to Tatchell and defence of his leadership of the Council. 12 other candidates stood, including Screaming Lord Sutch and Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood. Start of the campaign The Labour campaign started disastrously when it was discovered that the first leaflets had been printed at Cambridge Heath Press, owned by the Militant Tendency (a far left group practising entryism in the Labour Party which the party leadership was determined to remove; its five key members were expelled two days before polling day). The leaflets were all pulped and reprinted, but the cost of the first printing still counted against the limit for election spending. Attacks on Tatchell More press stories attacking Tatchell inspired widespread graffiti throughout the constituency which referred to him in derogatory terms. Some of those putting up posters in his support found their windows attacked. Tatchell himself received hate mail, including a live bullet, and was attacked when out in the street. Some of the other byelection candidates joined in: John O'Grady was filmed touring the constituency on the back of a horse and cart singing a song which referred to Tatchell 'wearing his trousers back to front'. Male Liberal canvassers were seen around the constituency wearing badges which read "I've been kissed by Peter Tatchell". On the last weekend of the campaign, an anonymous leaflet was sent round the constituency headed "Which Queen will you vote for?" and contrasting the republican Tatchell (pictured looking very effeminate) with Queen Elizabeth II. The leaflet gave Tatchell's home address and telephone number. Opinion polls Bermondsey was one of the first byelections to be extensively polled. The polls showed, at first, that the Labour vote was substantially down on the 1979 election figures but that none of the rival candidates were particularly close. As the campaign went on the Liberal candidate began to move into a clear second position and the other candidates faded. Later in the campaign there were rumours which claimed that the right-wing of the Labour Party nationally wished to lose the seat, as it would prove that left-wing Labour candidates were unelectable. By the eve of poll it was clear that large numbers of previously Labour voters were defecting to other parties, and that non-Labour voters were lining up in support of the Liberal candidate as the one most likely to beat Labour. Results With an electorate of 51,096, the turnout was 57.7%. Candidate> | b>Party | Votes | Share | Change | | a href="/encyclopedia/Simon-Hughes" title="Simon Hughes">Simon Hughes | Liberal | align=right|17,017 | align=right|57.7% | align=right|+50.9% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Peter-Tatchell" title="Peter Tatchell">Peter Tatchell | Labour | align=right|7,698 | align=right|26.1% | align=right|-37.5% | | ohn O'Grady | Real Bermondsey Labour | align=right|2,243 | align=right|7.6% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Robert-Gurth-Hughes" title="Robert Gurth Hughes">Robert Hughes | Conservative | align=right|1,631 | align=right|5.5% | align=right|-19.4% | | ames Sneath | National Front | align=right|426 | align=right|1.4% | align=right|-2.4% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Screaming-Lord-Sutch" title="Screaming Lord Sutch">David Sutch | Monster Raving Loony | align=right|97 | align=right|0.3% | | a href="/encyclopedia/Jane-Birdwood" title="Jane Birdwood">Jane Birdwood | England demands repatriation | align=right|69 | align=right|0.2% | | ichael Keulemans | New Britain Party | align=right|62 | align=right|0.2% | | arry Giddings | Independent Labour | align=right|50 | align=right|0.2% | | obert Gordon | Communist | align=right|50 | align=right|0.2% | | eorge Hannah | Ecology Party | align=right|45 | align=right|0.2% | | ran Eden | Revolutionary Communist Party | align=right|38 | align=right|0.1% | | nn King | National Labour Party | align=right|25 | align=right|0.1% | | lan Baker | United Democratic Party | align=right|15 | align=right|0.1% | | avid Wedgwood | Anti-Common Market Free Trade Party | align=right|15 | align=right|0.1% | | smond Bevan | Systems Analysis | align=right|8 | align=right|0.0% | Esmond Bevan made a mistake and inserted his occupation rather than politics in the nomination paper. He was an Independent Labour candidate. 1979 General Election: Candidate> | b>Party | Votes | Share | Change | | a href="/encyclopedia/Robert-Mellish" title="Robert Mellish">Robert Mellish | Labour | align=right|19,338 | align=right|63.6% | | lexander Duma | Conservative | align=right|7,582 | align=right|24.9% | | homas Taylor | Liberal | align=right|2,072 | align=right|6.8% | | ames Sneath | National Front | align=right|1,175 | align=right|3.9% | | nthony Moore | Worker's Revolutionary Party | align=right|239 | align=right|0.8% |
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