Sheffield Brightside by-election, 1968

The Sheffield Brightside by-election of 15 June 1968 was held after the death of Labour MP (MP) Richard Winterbottom. The seat was very safe, having been won by Labour at the United Kingdom general election, 1966 by over 19,000 votes^[1]

Candidates

• Labour chose Edward Griffiths to defend their seat, who was an industrial chemist and a worker director at the British Steel Corporation^[2]
• Colin Renfrew, for the Conservatives, was lecturer in the Department of Prehistory and Archaeology at the University of Sheffield
• Robert Wilkinson was chosen as the candidate for the Communists
• Ronald Guest, and Lt-Col H L Lambert, stood as independents.

Result of the previous general election

General Election 1966: Sheffield Brightside
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Richard Winterbottom	26,653	75.90
	Conservative	Raymond Hadfield	7,476	21.29
	Communist	Howard Hill	989	2.82
Majority			19,177	54.61	-

Result of the by-election

By-election 1968: Sheffield Brightside[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Edward Griffiths	14,179	55.21	-20.69
	Conservative	Colin Renfrew	8,931	34.77	+13.48
	Communist	Robert Wilkinson	1,069	4.16	+1.34
	Independent	Ronald Guest	918	3.6	N/A
	Independent	Lt-Col. H. L. Lambert	586	2.3	N/A
Majority			5,248
Turnout			25,683
	Labour hold		Swing

References

1. PoliticsResources.net
2. OBITUARY - Eddie Griffiths Independent.co.uk
3. "1968 By Election Results". British Elections Ephemera Archive. Archived from the original on 2012-03-25. Retrieved 2015-08-21.