A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015. Phillips had won a large majority of 39 per cent in 2015, with the Labour Party candidate coming second. The constituency had been held by the Conservatives since it was first contested in the 1997 general election and was considered a safe seat for the party. Sleaford and North Hykeham was estimated to have had a vote share of more than 60 per cent in favour of leaving the EU in the 2016 EU membership referendum and Brexit was a key issue in the by-election campaign. Phillips had supported a UK withdrawal from the EU but resigned in opposition to the government's handling of the issue – he felt that Parliament was not being consulted sufficiently. Ten candidates stood in the by-election. The anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) came second with 13 per cent of the vote, followed by the Liberal Democrats with 11 per cent of the vote and Labour on 10 per cent. The by-election result was widely seen as poor for the Labour Party, whose vote share decreased by 7 per cent. (en)
Location of Sleaford and North Hykeham within the parts of Lincolnshire that are within the Lincolnshire County Council area (en)
Graph of election results in Sleaford and North Hykeham, from 1997 to 2015 (en)
Graph of election results in Sleaford and North Hykeham, from 2015 to 2019 ; note that the Lincolnshire Independents did not stand in the constituency in the 2017 general election, and UKIP did not stand in the constituency in the 2019 general election. (en)
The main candidates are fighting a battle to appear the most anti-EU, with UKIP leaflets relentlessly painting the Tories as "Brexit backsliders" and Labour's candidate keen to highlight his willingness to trigger Article 50 despite having voted to remain. Only the Lib Dem candidate is concentrating on the 40% of voters in the constituency who backed remain last June. (en)
A by-election for the House of Commons constituency of Sleaford and North Hykeham in Lincolnshire, England, was held on 8 December 2016. It was triggered by the resignation of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament on 4 November 2016 due to policy differences with the Conservative government led by the prime minister, Theresa May, over Brexit – the British withdrawal from the European Union (EU). The Conservatives nominated Caroline Johnson, a paediatrician, to replace Phillips; she won the by-election with more than 50 per cent of the vote, a sizable majority. The Conservatives' vote share fell slightly compared to the result at the previous general election in 2015. (en)
