Tories set to score twin victory in by-election

Press, 2 June 1982, Page 9

Tories set to score twin victory in by-election

NZPA London If the political pundits are to be believed, the by-elec-tion tomorrow for the House of Commons seat of Mitcham and Morden will be historic for two reasons, With popular’ support for the Government’s Falkland Islands policy strengthening with British victories, the Conservative candidate is likely to score the first byelection gain by a party in office for 22 years. The poll could also see the first loss of a seat by the year-old Social Democratic Party. The London suburban seat became vacant when Bruce Douglas-Mann, aged 54, who had held it for Labour for eight years, resigned on principle after switching to the Social Democrats.

Mr Douglas-Mann, a solicitor, has been sarcastically

described by some critics as a politician too principled for his. own survival — other Labour members who joined the Social Democrats did not risk their seats at a byelection. Mr Douglas-Mann had only a 618-vote majority when he retained Mitcham and Morden in the 1979 General Election. Two months ago; he could have expected to increase that, margin on the Social Democratic bandwagon that won the seats of Crosby and Hillhead. . But now the Falklands issue has turned the bandwagon'’the other way.

Slightly distasteful as it may seem to some, the war has taken public attention away from the grass-roots issues of unemployment and inflation and given Margaret

Thatcher an unexpected midterm popularity. The Conservatives easily retained the seat of Beconsfield in another by-election last week, and the Tory candidate, Mrs Angela Rumbold,. aged 49, is confident she can follow up for the Tories at Mitcham and Morden. Mrs Rumbold .is on the Tory Right wing . and is a firmly committed follower of Mrs 1 Thatcher, her popular Falklands policies and her unpopular economic line. As for the official Opposition Labour Party, its candidate. David Nicholas, aged 36. appears to have a hopeless task. He is up against a Tory swing, a sitting member, and he himself is a Left-winger who is a supporter of the militant. Tony Benn.