1968 Kensington South by-election
The 1968 Kensington South by-election by-election was held in the Kensington South constituency of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom on 14 March 1968. The election was to fill a vacancy in the seat formerly held by Conservative MP William Roots, who resigned from Parliament in 1968 due to ill health.
The seat was considered a safe seat for the Conservatives ('as safe and solid as the red-brick Victorian blocks of flats', wrote the Times); at the 1966 general election Roots was elected with 65.1 percent of the vote and a majority of 14,631. Turnout was expected to be low as the constituency had a large transient population living in bedsits and flats.[1]
The Conservative Sir Brandon Rhys-Williams, a management consultant, won the seat with 75.5 percent of the vote and a slightly reduced majority (13,747) on a much reduced turnout. The Liberal candidate Thomas Kellock, a QC who had fought the seat at the previous general election, came in a distant second, with Labour candidate Clive Bradley, a barrister and journalist, forced into third place and losing his deposit.[2] There were two independent candidates who received the fewest votes: Sinclair Eustace, 37, a teacher of phonetics and a campaigner against aircraft noise, described by The Times as 'perhaps the most civilized and likeable' of all the candidates but with a platform very close to that of the Liberal Party; and William Gold, 45, an engineer and 'a Buddhist, anti-vivisectionist, periodic vegetarian and author of at least six unpublished novels' who had only just returned to the UK after living in Australia.[3]
Results[edit]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | Brandon Rhys-Williams | 16,489 | 75.5 | +10.4 | |
| Liberal | Thomas Kellock | 2,742 | 12.6 | -2.5 | |
| Labour | Clive Bradley | 1,874 | 8.6 | -11.2 | |
| Independent | Sinclair Eustace | 675 | 3.1 | New | |
| Independent | William Gold | 59 | 0.3 | New | |
| Majority | 13,747 | 62.9 | +17.8 | ||
| Turnout | 21,839 | 40.0 | -18.1 | ||
| Conservative hold | Swing | ||||
Notes[edit]
- ^ Young, John (2 March 1968). "Bedsitter vote being wooed: Multiple clash a puzzle". The Times.
- ^ "Tories sweep in at Kensington Labour candidate loses deposit in low poll", The Times, 15 March 1968.
- ^ "Far From Madding Parties", The Times, 7 March 1968.
- ^ "1968 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 21 August 2015.