The 1965 Leyton by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 21 January 1965 for the House of Commons constituency of Leyton in east London.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's long-serving Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Reginald Sorensen, was made a life peer on 15 December 1964. An MP for over thirty years, his elevation to the peerage was intended to create a vacancy in a safe seat for the Foreign Secretary, Patrick Gordon Walker, who had been defeated in a shock result in the 1964 general election in his Smethwick constituency.
The result of the contest was not as planned: the Conservative Party candidate, Ronald Buxton, won with a majority of 205 votes, a swing from Labour of 8.7%. Gordon-Walker resigned as Foreign Secretary but regained the seat for Labour at the 1966 general election.
Votes
See also
References
This page was last edited on 25 January 2024, at 08:55