Newham North East by-election, 1994

The Newham North East by-election, in London Borough of Newham, on 9 June 1994 was held after long-serving Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Ron Leighton died.^[1] A safe Labour seat, it was won by Stephen Timms, who would go on to retain the East Ham seat which replaced it in 1997.

Candidates

• Richard Archer was the Natural Law Party candidate. He was also a candidate for the party in the European elections of the same year in the London North East constituency.^[2]
• Vida Garman, a pornographic model, ran as a publicity stunt for the newspaper The Daily Sport, which wanted to take advantage of free postage for electoral leaflets.^[3]
• Philip Hammond was chosen as the Conservative Party candidate. He was director of a medical equipment and the chairman of Lewisham East Conservative Association.^[4]
• Jo Homeless had changed her name by deed poll in order to contest the election on a campaign of housing the homeless.^[3]
• Alec Kellaway was the nominated candidate for the Liberal Democrats however immediately prior to the election Kellaway announced that he was leaving the Liberal Democrats and joining the Labour Party. Consequently, there was no official Liberal Democrat standing in the election.^[5]
• Anthony Scholefield was the candidate for the United Kingdom Independence Party.
• Stephen Timms, the Labour candidate, had previously served as the leader of the local council for four years.^[4]

Results

Newham North East by-election, 1994^[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Stephen Timms	14,688	74.97	+16.64
	Conservative	Philip Hammond	2,850	14.55	-15.96
	Liberal Democrat	Alec Kellaway	821	4.19	-7.0
	UKIP	Anthony Scholefield	509	2.60	N/A
	House Homeless People	Ms Jo Homeless	342	1.75	N/A
	Natural Law	Richard Archer	228	1.15	N/A
	Buy the Daily Sport	Ms Vida Garman	155	0.79	N/A
Turnout			19,593
	Labour hold		Swing

The results for the previous election were:

1992 General Election:Newham North East

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Labour	Ron Leighton	20,952	58.30
	Conservative	JH Galbraith	10,966	30.51
	Liberal Democrat	JJ Aves	4020	11.19
Majority			9,986	27.79
Turnout			35,938	60.34
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. Full results
2. 1994 European election results
3. Boothroyd, David. "Results of Byelections in the 1992-97 Parliament". United Kingdom Election Results. Retrieved 2015-10-01.
4. One-horse race for deprived city seat: NEWHAM NORTH-EAST: Labour candidate prepares for victory
5. Colin Rallings & David Broughton, British Elections and Parties Yearbook 1995, p. 182