Episode 1678
2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election
Wed, 2021-Dec-08 00:58 UTC
Length - 2:35
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Wednesday, 8 December 2021 is 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election.
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 on 4 November 2016 of the Conservative member of parliament (MP) Stephen Phillips, who left Parliament 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. Many MPs and analysts felt that this was because of Labour's stance on Brexit – an attempt to appeal to voters on both sides of the debate.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:58 UTC on Wednesday, 8 December 2021.
For the full current version of the article, see 2016 Sleaford and North Hykeham by-election on Wikipedia.
This podcast is produced by Abulsme Productions based on Wikipedia content and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
Visit wikioftheday.com for our archives, sister podcasts, and swag. Please subscribe to never miss an episode. You can also follow @WotDpod on Twitter.
Abulsme Productions produces the current events podcast Curmudgeon's Corner as well. Check it out in your podcast player of choice.
This has been Matthew Standard. Thank you for listening to featured Wiki of the Day.
|
|
Buy WotD Stuff!!
