Manchester Central by-election, 1979

The Manchester Central by-election, 1979 was a parliamentary by-election held on 27 September 1979 for the British House of Commons constituency of Manchester Central.

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Harold Lever had been made a life peer on 3 July 1979. He had held the seat since its creation for the February 1974 general election, having represented previous constituencies in Manchester since the 1945 general election.

Being held less than five months after the 1979 general election (where the Tories had won power from Labour after five years), it was the first by-election of the 1979–1983 parliament.

Results

Manchester Central was a safe seat for Labour. On a heavily reduced turnout, the result of the contest was a victory for the Labour candidate, Bob Litherland, who won with the same 70.7% share of the vote which Lever had won at the general election in May 1979.

Litherland held the seat until he retired from the House of Commons at the 1997 general election.

Votes

Manchester Central by-election, 1979
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Bob Litherland	7,494	70.7	0
	Liberal	Anthony Parkinson	1,502	14.2	+8.9
	Conservative	Stephen Lea	1,275	12.0	−10.1
	Independent Labour	Syed Ala-Ud-Din	187	1.8	N/A
	Ecology	John Foster	129	1.2	N/A
	Democratic Monarchist, Public Safety, White Resident.	Bill Boaks	12	0.1	N/A
Majority			5,992	56.5	+7.9
Turnout			10,599	33.8	−29.9
	Labour hold		Swing

References

• British Parliamentary by-elections: Manchester Central 1983
• Richard Kimber's political science resources: UK General Election results 1979
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

See also

• Manchester Central (UK Parliament constituency)
• Manchester
• List of United Kingdom by-elections