On Thursday the voters of Gorton and Denton will elect their new MP after weeks of media speculation. This by-election had huge attention before it was even called, and in Westminster eyes are fixed on Manchester. In this article, Dr Emma Peplow uses our oral history archive interviews to look back at a very different by-election, but one that also took place under full media spotlight: Christchurch 1993.

In May 1993 Robert Adley, the Conservative MP for Christchurch – a prosperous retirement town on the south coast – died following a heart attack. A strong voice against the privatisation of the rail network, Adley had been sitting on the ninth-highest government majority in the country (23,015).

Adley’s death, however, came at a bad time for John Major’s government. Their likely opponents, the Liberal Democrats, were flying high after a by-election victory in Newbury and another soon to follow in Eastleigh. The government’s economic record was under intense scrutiny following Black Wednesday in September 1992, when the UK crashed out of the ERM; high interest rates, and the decision to charge VAT on domestic fuel. Finally, there was chaos in Westminster: the government was desperately trying to pass legislation to ratify the 1992 Maastricht Treaty against a determined and well-organised group of Eurosceptic rebels in their own party. With such an atmosphere, hundreds of journalists from across the world descended on Christchurch ‘sensing blood’ [Crick, p.546].

Although on paper an enormous challenge, the Liberal Democrats also smelled a record-breaking victory: their campaign leader Chris Rennard moved his team’s resources straight from Newbury on to Christchurch [Crick, p.544]. Their candidate was relatively unusual. Diana Maddock, a former teacher, had joined the Liberal Party as ‘something positive’ to do whilst on maternity leave, rising through the local party to become the Liberal Democrat’s group leader on the Council in nearby Southampton. At first she was unsure whether to stand, encouraged by a colleague who dismissed her concerns as ‘that’s what women always say.’ With her family’s backing, late in the day she decided to apply. Struggling to get the paperwork in on time, she remembered ‘At that point I thought “Can I be bothered with this?”’

Successfully selected, however, Maddock’s life ‘changed forever’. She was immediately thrown into the spotlight. Here she describes the first of many campaign press conferences:

Maddock remembered needing to get ‘gear’, as she did not have the appropriate wardrobe for an MP, and taking tips from ‘all the national press’ photographers on how to pose. The press warmed to Maddock, although the focus was often on her gender and appearance: one reporter described her ‘steely-haired coiffure [that] made her the Sharon Stone of Christchurch’ [The Times, p.35 9 July 2020].

Maddock’s main rival, Conservative Robert Hayward, was more experienced. The MP for Kingswood, in Bristol, from 1983 to 1992, Hayward told our oral history project that he was looking for both a job and a way back into Parliament. Hayward had made his name in part by successfully forecasting the outcome of Conservative leadership contests, and an internal paper predicting the party’s win in 1992 that led to the term ‘shy Tories’. Although Hayward wanted a safe seat, he maintains he did not want to stand for Christchurch, advising a friend against doing so in the belief that the Conservatives would lose. His decision to apply was instead for ‘experience’ running in a safe Conservative seat, and believing that one of three local candidates would easily be nominated instead. Unfortunately for Hayward, these three dropped out and he became the frontrunner. This led to a ‘real row’ in central office with officials who argued Hayward could not now withdraw without damaging his friend, John Major.

Advised to throw the interview, and driving there hoping that his car would break down, instead Hayward performed well. He later felt this was in part due to his response to a question testing his CV claim that he spoke ‘very, very basic Afrikaans’:

Part of the reason this campaign was so ‘awful’ for Hayward were the underlying press rumours about his sexuality. Following the 1992 election Hayward had begun to live as an openly gay man, but had not made any public statement about his sexuality (nor had he come out to his parents). The ‘Westminster bubble’, and many journalists, knew about this, but the general public remained in the dark. This included local Conservative party members, who Hayward agrees would not have selected him in the atmosphere of the early 1990s if they had known. This of course had an impact on Hayward:

The untrue and rather salacious rumours that Hayward remembered circulating in the press included affairs with firemen and wild parties that included Liberal Democrats, who were in fact campaigning against him. All were a great deal more salacious than his life actually was! He has since been praised for his good-humour and patience in dealing with this; his press officer Jo-Anne Nadler remembering his ‘Tiggerish energy’ despite a ‘slightly hysterical atmosphere.’ [Crick, p.547]

As the campaign went on, things only went worse for Hayward and better for Maddock. The Liberal Democrats had a lead when the election was called, and hundreds of campaigners descended on the constituency enjoying the summer heatwave. Maddock remembered that many years later activists would still approach her to say they had been there. On the other side, Hayward had to deal with press questions on government splits. The Maastricht legislation was finally passed during the campaign, but only after major defeats, votes of confidence, and Major’s unguarded remark naming the rebels ‘bastards’. Again, Hayward was praised for his good humour when asked whether his motto should now be “Don’t let the bastards get you down?” [Crick, p.548]

Maddock, on the other hand, enjoyed a positive reception on the streets and huge attendance at public rallies. She remembered one journalist told her he knew she had won when, despite former Prime Minister Ted Heath speaking elsewhere in the constituency, her rally was so packed he had to climb out of a window to leave the building.

The win was record-breaking. Maddock had a 16,427 majority and it is arguably still the largest swing (35.4%) away from a sitting government in any election (excluding Douglas Carswell retaining his seat after his defection to UKIP in 2014). For Maddock election night was amazing, as well as life-changing and overwhelming:

Maddock held the seat only until 1997, when she lost by a respectable 2,165 votes. Reflecting that she would never win back the constituency, she joined the House of Lords and went on to be President of the Liberal Democrats before her death from breast cancer in 2020.

The result also shaped Hayward’s life, ending his career in the Commons for good:

It was terribly difficult to recover from that defeat because everybody wanted to blame me […] That’s natural, I’m afraid politics is not a pleasant business […] If you are the figurehead it’s very easy for them to turn in on you.

However, by the time of his interview for our archive, he was able to reflect that in the long run the loss had placed him on a better career path. Hayward went on to advise the Conservative party on electoral strategy and boundary changes, become a media commentator on polling, and a campaigner for Stonewall. He now sits in the Lords.

Whether Thursday’s by-election will be as life-changing for the candidates involved is yet to be seen; still they will surely to be able to relate to the whirlwind of attention that these contests sometimes generate.

EP

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Further Reading

Diana, Baroness Maddock, interviewed by Isobel White for the History of Parliament Trust Oral History Project, C1503/0157

Robert, Lord Hayward, interviewed by Elaine Tedder for the History of Parliament Trust Oral History Project, C1503/0198

Michael Crick, ‘Christchurch’ in Iain Dale (ed.) British By-Elections 1769-2025 (London: Biteback, 2025), pp. 543-51

Emma Peplow,  ‘Maddock [née Derbyshire], Diana Margaret Pearson, Baroness Maddock (1945-2020), politician’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2024)