40th Anniversary of Richard Livsey’s Brecon & Radnorshire By-Election Win
Cymdeithas Lloyd George/The Lloyd George Society would like to mark the 40th anniversary Richard Livsey’s historic win in the Brecon & Radnorshire By-election.
The by-election was called after the death of the sitting Conservative MP Tom Hooson, the cousin of the former Welsh Liberal Party leader and Montgomery MP Emlyn Hooson.
In a 3-way contest, Livsey overturned a Tory majority of over 10,000 and narrowly won the seat by 559 votes over the Labour Party and Conservative Party. This was a big upset for the larger parties, as one was defending a large majority and the other was trying to regain the seat, having lost it in 1979. It was also a notable win for the Liberal/SDP Alliance.
The Tories recaptured the seat in 1992, but Livsey regained it in 1997 and served until his retirement in 2001. Following his retirement, he was ennobled as Baron Livsey of Talgarth and the seat was further strengthened as a Liberal Democrat stronghold by his successor Roger Williams at Westminster and Kirsty Williams in the Welsh Assembly.
Although the Westminster seat was lost in 2015 to the Tories, it was regained by the Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Jane Dodds in another By-Election in 2019. However, Dodds lost the seat to the Tories in the 2019 General Election.
The constituency boundaries were altered for the July 4th 2024 General Election and renamed as Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe, with David Chadwick regaining the seat for the Liberal Democrats.
So, not only is this the 40th anniversary of the Liberal/SDP Alliance win but it also coincides with the 12 month anniversary of a new dawn of a Liberal Democrat in the seat.
The Society congratulates the late Baron Livsey and David Chadwick on their historic wins and their joint anniversary.
