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LeftishBrit

(41,318 posts)
2. The previous MP for Bury South was Ivan Lewis, who started as Labour and ended as heaven knows what
Thu Jan 27, 2022, 09:15 PM
Jan 2022

So there's a bit of a tradition of er, party-independence there.

It's also a somewhat marginal seat, despite the 'Red Wall' associations. Lewis defeated and replaced a Tory MP in 1997.

Most party-switchers have not fought by-elections. One of them was Cameron's predecessor as MP for Witney, Shaun Woodward, who switched from Tory to Labour in the early 2000s. Witney has recently become more marginal at least in Council elections; but at that time was impregnably blue. Woodward stayed on until the 2005 election, when he relocated to a Labour seat and remained an MP for while. Cameron took over in Witney.

One of my early political memories is of Reg Prentice, who became Labour Education Secretary when Labour got in in 1974, thus Rescuing Us from The Milk-Snatcher (hooray!) but soon got embroiled in party quarrels and switched to the Tories (boo!) Again, he did not fight a by-election, but stayed on till 1979, when he moved to a Tory seat, and was re-elected for that party.

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