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Constituency of Eastbourne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 60.7% ( 14.9%) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1990 Eastbourne by-election was a by-election held on 18 October 1990 for the House of Commons constituency of Eastbourne in East Sussex.
The by-election was caused by the death of the town's Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Ian Gow, who was killed on 30 July 1990 by a bomb placed under his car by the Provisional IRA.
The result was a victory for the Liberal Democrat candidate David Bellotti, who defeated former Conservative MP Richard Hickmet by a majority of 4,550 votes and with more than half the votes cast. The loss came as a shock to many Conservatives who had expected (not least given the circumstances under which the by-election was held, as well as the fact that it had been retained by a majority of more than 16,000 votes in 1987) that they would retain the seat. Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe sent a message to voters saying that the IRA would be "toasting their success".[1]
It was a welcome success for the Liberal Democrats, formed in March 1988, after some disastrous early local and European election showings, as well as dismal showings in opinion polls. It came at a time when Conservative support was slumping and Labour was enjoying a comfortable lead in the opinion polls, largely due to the unpopular introduction of poll tax by the Conservative government.[2]
The Liberal Democrats, whose newly adopted party emblem was a 'bird of liberty', had been compared by Margaret Thatcher in a Conservative party conference speech on 12 October to a "dead parrot".[3] The shock defeat contributed to the end of Thatcher's premiership in November 1990 as Conservative MPs worried if they could hold their seats at a general election if she remained prime minister.[4]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | David Bellotti | 23,415 | 50.8 | +21.1 | |
| Conservative | Richard Hickmet | 18,865 | 41.0 | −18.9 | |
| Labour | Charlotte Atkins | 2,308 | 5.0 | −3.8 | |
| Green | David Aherne | 553 | 1.2 | −0.4 | |
| Liberal | Theresia Williamson | 526 | 1.1 | New | |
| Corrective Party | Lady Whiplash | 216 | 0.5 | New | |
| National Front | John McAuley | 154 | 0.3 | New | |
| Ironside Party | Eric Page | 35 | 0.1 | New | |
| Majority | 4,550 | 9.8 | N/A | ||
| Turnout | 46,072 | 60.7 | −14.9 | ||
| Liberal Democrats gain from Conservative | Swing | +20.0 | |||
