1965 Leyton by-election

← 1964

21 January 1965

1966 →

Constituency of Leyton

Turnout

57.7%

	First party	Second party	Third party
			Lib
Candidate	Ronald Buxton	Patrick Gordon Walker	Alistair H. Mackay
Party	Conservative	Labour	Liberal
Popular vote	16,544	16,339	5,382
Percentage	42.9%	42.4%	14.0%
Swing	9.4%	8.0%	2.2%

MP before election

Reginald Sorensen
Labour

Elected MP

Ronald Buxton
Conservative

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

Leyton by-election, 1965
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Ronald Buxton	16,544	42.9	+9.4
	Labour	Patrick Gordon Walker	16,339	42.4	−8.0
	Liberal	Alistair H Mackay	5,382	14.0	−2.2
	UK & Commonwealth Party	Jeremiah Lynch	157	0.4	New
	Disarmament	George Delf	156	0.4	New
Majority			205	0.5	N/A
Turnout			38,578	57.7	−12.5
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	+8.7

References

British Parliamentary by-elections: Leyton
UK General Elections since 1832 Archived 2 July 2009 at the Wayback Machine
Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages

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1965 Leyton by-election

Votes

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