1960 Brighouse and Spenborough by-election

{{Short description|UK parliamentary by-election}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Use British English|date=January 2015}}

A 1960 by-election was held for the British House of Commons constituency of Brighouse and Spenborough on 17 March 1960. The seat became vacant following the death on 23 November 1959 of the Labour Party Member of Parliament Lewis John Edwards, who had held the seat since a by-election in 1950, but whose majority had been cut to only 47 votes at the 1959 general election."Candidate To Fight Brighouse Again", The Times, 8 December 1959.

The result was a narrow gain for the Conservative and National Liberal candidate; in 1950, the National Liberal party, once strong in the constituency, had merged with the Conservatives."Puzzle For Brighouse Liberals", The Times, 10 March 1960. Michael Shaw, who won the election, had been the defeated candidate in 1959. However, Colin Jackson (the Labour candidate at the by-election) would go on to regain the seat for his party at the 1964 general election. Shaw went on to represent Scarborough from 1966 to February 1974, as a Conservative, and the seat of Scarborough and Whitby from then until 1992, when he stood down.

This was the first seat gained by an incumbent government at a by-election since the 1953 Sunderland South by-election. Other than the special circumstances of the 1961 Bristol South-East by-election, awarded to the Conservatives by an Election Court, this feat was not repeated until the 1982 Mitcham and Morden by-election. The only other examples of a government by-election gain in the post-war period have been the 2017 Copeland by-election and the 2021 Hartlepool by-election.

{{Election box begin | title=Brighouse and Spenborough by-election, 1960{{cite web|url=http://www.by-elections.co.uk/60.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131016154925/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/60.html|title=1960 By Election Results|archive-date=2013-10-16|url-status=dead|access-date=2015-08-15}}}}

{{Election box winning candidate with party link|

|party = National Liberal Party (UK, 1947)

|candidate = Michael Shaw

|votes = 22,472

|percentage = 50.8

|change = +0.9

}}

{{Election box candidate with party link|

|party = Labour Party (UK)

|candidate = Colin Jackson

|votes = 21,806

|percentage = 49.2

|change = -0.9

}}

{{Election box majority|

|votes = 666

|percentage = 1.6

|change = N/A

}}

{{Election box turnout|

|votes = 44,278

|percentage =

|change =

}}

{{Election box gain with party link|

|winner = National Liberal Party (UK, 1947)

|loser = Labour Party (UK)

|swing = +0.8

}}

{{Election box end}}