Eastbourne By-Election, 1990

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. The Eastbourne by-election, 1990 was a by-election held on 18 October 1990 for the British House of Commons constituency of Eastbourne in East Sussex. The by-election was caused by the death of the town's Conservative Party Member of Parliament (MP) Ian Gow, who was killed on 30 July 1990 by a bomb placed under his car by the Provisional IRA. The result was a victory for the Liberal Democrat candidate David Bellotti, who defeated the former Conservative MP Richard Hickmet by a majority of 4,550 votes. The defeat came as a shock to many Conservatives who had expected (not least given the circumstances under which the by-election was held, as well as the fact that it had been retained by a majority of more than 16,000 votes in 1987) that they would easily retain the seat. Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe sent a message to voters saying that the IRA would be "toasting their success".