By-election record
Sir: To describe the by-election record of the Heath Government as disastrous (Dennis Kavanagh, 6 May) is rather misleading. Admittedly four seats were lost to the Liberals (Ely, Ripon, Sutton, Berwick) but in the main two-party battle with Labour, Conservative support held up well. Only one seat, Bromsgrove, was lost and swings to Labour were mostly well below by-election norms. Moreover, the Labour Party, despite the advantages of Opposition, was doing very badly itself, losing Rochdale to the Liberals, Lincoln to Democratic Labour, and Govan to the Scots Nats.
It was partly the encouraging results of the last batch of by-elections in November 1973 ( a minute swing to Labour in the two-party battle at Edinburgh North and Labour losing Govan) that moved Mr Heath to dissolve in February 1974. So it was really a surprise that the Conservatives did not win the general election though of course they obtained more popular votes.
The year 1962 truly marks the beginning of by-election misery for governments. Only two years earlier the Conservative Government actually gained a seat from Labour in the Brighouse by-election.
Robin Gordon-Walker 10 Eastmearn Road, West Dulwich, London SE21
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