Coventry North West by-election, 1976

The Coventry North West by-election, in Coventry, on 4 March 1976 was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Maurice Edelman. A safe Labour seat, it was won by Geoffrey Robinson, who would go on to retain the seat in 1979.^[1]

Party performance

The by-election represented the first outing for the National Party which had recently split from the National Front and in the end both parties ran candidates in the election. Although ultimately both finished well off the pace it set a trend for a split far right vote which would be replicated in the Vauxhall by-election, 1989 and elsewhere.

The Liberal Party vote fell in this by-election in a development that former leader Jo Grimond blamed in part on scandals surrounding incumbent Jeremy Thorpe's homosexuality. Grimond suggested that the result and the allegatons meant that Thorpe "must think of stepping down".^[2] Thorpe stood down as Liberal leader two months later.

Results

Coventry North West, 1976
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Geoffrey Robinson	17,118	47.72	-4.14
	Conservative	Jonathan Guinness	13,424	37.42	+6.08
	Liberal	Alan Leighton	4,062	11.32	-4.34
	National Front	Andrew Fountaine	986	2.75	N/A
	National Party	John Kingsley Read	208	0.60	N/A
	More Prosperous Britain	Thomas Keen	40	0.11	N/A
	Logic Party	William Dunmore	33	0.09	N/A
Turnout			35,871
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. ^ Full result
2. ^ Michael McManus, Jo Grimond: Towards the Sound of Gunfire, Edinburgh, 2001, p. 325