1996 South East Staffordshire by-election

A by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of South East Staffordshire on 11 April 1996, following the death the previous December of the sitting Conservative MP Sir David Lightbown.

1996 South East Staffordshire by-election

← 1992 11 April 1996 1997 →
Turnout	62%
First party Second party   Candidate Brian Jenkins Timothy James Party Labour Conservative Popular vote 26,155 12,393 Percentage 60.1% 28.5% Swing 22.0pp 22.2pp
MP before election David Lightbown Conservative Elected MP Brian Jenkins Labour

The result was a Labour gain from the Conservatives with a large swing.^[1]

Results

South East Staffordshire, 1996^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Brian Jenkins	26,155	60.1	+22.0
	Conservative	Timothy James	12,393	28.5	–22.2
	Liberal Democrats	Janette Davy	2,042	4.7	–4.9
	UKIP	Andrew Smith	1,272	2.9	New
	Monster Raving Loony	David Sutch	506	1.2	New
	National Democrats	Sharron Edwards	358	0.8	New
	Liberal	Steven Mountford	332	0.8	New
	Churchill Conservative	Leslie Tucker	123	0.3	New
	L!VE TV	News Bunny	85	0.2	New
	Daily Loonylugs Earring Up the World	Tony Samuelson	80	0.2	New
	Natural Law	David Lucas	53	0.1	New
	Action Against Crime	Frederick Sandy	53	0.1	New
	Restoration of Death Penalty	Alan Wood	45	0.1	New
Majority			13,762	31.6	N/A
Turnout			43,497	62.0
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing	+22.1

Notes on candidates

News Bunny was a character on the cable channel Live TV. The candidate was an employee of the channel who changed his name for the purposes of the election.

The ballot paper description of the candidate N Samuelson was "Daily Loonylugs Earing Up the World".^[2]

See also

• 2023 Tamworth by-election (another by-election in the successor constituency)
• List of United Kingdom by-elections
• List of parliamentary constituencies in Staffordshire