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Tatton in the 1997 general election
Tatton constituency
Turnout	76.1% (4.7%)
MP before election; Neil Hamilton; Conservative	Elected MP ; Martin Bell; Independent

Tatton in the 1997 general election was one of the UK's highest-profile constituencies. It was the fourth safest Conservative seat in the country, where an independent candidate, Martin Bell managed to take the seat from the sitting Conservative MP, Neil Hamilton.

Safe Seat

The Conservative majority at the 1992 general election had been almost 16,000 votes. In 1997, Tatton was the fourth safest Conservative seat in Britain.

General election 1992: Tatton^[1]^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Neil Hamilton	31,658	55.1	+0.5
	Labour	Jonathan Kelly	15,798	27.5	+5.9
	Liberal Democrats	Catherine Hancox	9,597	16.7	―6.9
	Feudal Party	Michael Gibson	410	0.7	+0.2
Majority			15,860	27.6	―3.4
Turnout			57,463	80.8	+4.0
	Conservative hold		Swing	―2.7

Cash for Questions

The sitting MP, Neil Hamilton was implicated in the Cash for Questions for accepting money from Mohamed Al-Fayed. Hamilton was under investigation by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner as part of the cash for questions enquiry and some party members thought he should stand down after the collapse of his case against The Guardian.^[3] Disquiet in the local association became public, but the majority gave him the benefit of the doubt.^{[citation needed]}^[4] Hamilton resisted the pressure from senior Conservatives and Conservative Central Office to stand down. Jeremy Paxman states that Conservative Central Office "begged him not to stand, but in a gesture of overweening arrogance, he refused to go quietly."^[5]

On 8 April 1997, Hamilton was chosen as the Conservative candidate for Tatton (182 for, 35 against, 100 abstained). The Observer commissioned ICM polls in the constituencies of the three Conservative candidates tainted by scandal and seeking re-election: Hamilton, Allan Stewart and Piers Merchant. Both Stewart and Merchant were found to have support consistent with their party's standing, but in Tatton "there was massive hostility to Hamilton".^[6]

Bell's Candidacy

On 7 April 1997, twenty-four days before that year's British general election, Martin Bell, the BBC war correspondent, announced that he was leaving the BBC to stand as an independent candidate in the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. Labour and the Liberal Democrats withdrew their candidates in Bell's favour in a plan masterminded by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary.^[7]^[8] The two parties supported his "anti-corruption" campaign.

Result

On 1 May 1997, Bell defeated Hamilton being elected as an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes^[9] – overturning a notional Conservative majority of over 22,000 in the 4th safest Conservative seat in the UK – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.^[10] There was a swing of 48%. Hamilton came second.

Although Hamilton vowed to return to parliament, this defeat marked the end of his political career in the Conservative Party. In March 1999, George Osborne was selected by the Tatton Conservative Association to be their candidate for the following general election.

General election 1997: Tatton^[11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Independent	Martin Bell	29,354	60.2	*New*
	Conservative	Neil Hamilton	18,277	37.5	―17.6
	Ind. Conservative	Sam Hill	295	0.6	New
	Ind. Conservative	Simon Kinsey	184	0.4	New
	Miss Moneypenny's Glamorous One Party	Burnel Penhaul	128	0.3	New
	Albion Party	John Muir	126	0.3	New
	Natural Law	Michael Kennedy	123	0.3	New
	Lord Biro versus the Scallywag Tories	David Bishop	116	0.2	New
	Ind. Conservative	Ralph Nicholas	113	0.2	New
	Juice Party	Julian Price	73	0.1	New
Majority			11,077	22.7	N/A
Turnout			48,792	76.1	―4.7
	Independent gain from Conservative		Swing	38.7

References

^ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.
^ "UK General Election results April 1992". Richard Kimber's Political Science Resources. Politics Resources. 9 April 1992. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2010.
^ The 1997 General Election edited by D. T. Denver, p. 83. ISBN 0714649090.
^ "Neil Hamilton should step down as Knutsford's MP now, a true blue Tory argued this week". Warrington Guardian. 9 October 1996. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014.
^ Jeremy Paxman, The Political Animal, 2002, ISBN 9780141032962
^ Bruce Page, The Murdoch Archipelago, 2003, ISBN 9781849837798.
^ "Man-in-white stands for Euro seat". BBC News. 5 March 2004. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
^ Campbell, Alastair, The Blair Years, Random House, London, 2007
^ "Tatton". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 13 May 2008. Retrieved 26 April 2007.
^ "Full profile: Martin Bell". The Guardian. London. 3 June 2007. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
^ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 18 October 2015.