On 5 June 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Newark,^[1][2] following the resignation of Patrick Mercer.^[3] Conservative Robert Jenrick won the seat with a majority of 7,403.

Quick Facts Newark constituency, Turnout ...

2014 Newark by-election

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Newark constituency
Turnout	52.79%
First party Second party Third party   Candidate Robert Jenrick Roger Helmer Michael Payne Party Conservative UKIP Labour Popular vote 17,431 10,028 6,842 Percentage 45.0% 25.9% 17.7% Swing 8.9% 22.1% 4.7%
MP before election Patrick Mercer Conservative Subsequent MP Robert Jenrick Conservative

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Mercer resigned the Conservative Party whip on 31 May 2013 after an investigation by the BBC's Panorama programme regarding allegations of paid lobbying without registering the interest.^[4] He was paid £4,000 for asking questions in Parliament, and the Panorama team considered that he asked five parliamentary questions, but declared only £2,000 of the £4,000.^[5] As a consequence, he said at the time that he would not stand in the 2015 general election.^[6]

On 29 April, after being told that the Committee on Standards would recommend that he be suspended from the House of Commons for six months, Mercer announced that he would resign his seat: he told journalists on College Green that he was standing down from "God's county of Nottinghamshire".^[3][7] Mercer was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Three Chiltern Hundreds on 30 April 2014, a mechanism by which MPs resign.^[8]

The writ was moved on 1 May 2014 for the by-election to be held on 5 June.^[1][9]

The nominations closed at 4pm on Tuesday 13 May with 11 candidates being nominated.^[10]

The local Conservative Party had already selected Robert Jenrick to fight the seat.^[11] Jenrick trained as a solicitor and is a director of Christie's auction house. He is married with two children.

Labour selected 27-year-old councillor Michael Payne, a former students' union president^[12] and current deputy leader of Gedling Borough Council.^[13]

The Liberal Democrats chose David Watts, leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.^[13]

Nigel Farage was immediately interviewed on the evening of 29 April and said he was "tempted" to stand, but the next morning he ruled himself out.^[14] UKIP instead announced that outspoken former Conservative and current UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer^[15][16] would stand in the by-election.^[17]

The Bus Pass Elvis Party leader and perennial election candidate, David Bishop, announced on 6 May that he would stand in the by-election after taking fourth place ahead of the Liberal Democrats in a recent local authority by-election in Clifton North ward, Nottingham.^[18]

The Conservatives retained the seat with a majority of over 7,000 which was described by the BBC as 'a relatively comfortable victory'.^[21] While UKIP's performance decreased the Conservative majority the BBC's Alex Forsyth said this was 'not as much as Mr Farage had hoped - or predicted'.^[21] Christopher Hope, writing in The Daily Telegraph, argued that 'the scale of the victory is a vindication for the Tory high command which mounted a huge effort to win the seat' and claimed that David Cameron 'had halted the momentum of Ukip'.^[22] George Osborne hailed his party's victory and noted that it was the first time the Conservative's had held a seat at a by-election while in government for 25 years.^[21] However, both Nigel Farage and Labour's Chris Bryant suggested that the Conservative performance was not particularly impressive.^[21] It was suggested by Owen Jones in The Guardian that "Labour and Lib Dem voters clearly voted tactically to keep Ukip out".^[23] The poor performance for the Liberal Democrats was described by the BBC as one of 'worst performances in a post-war English by-election' for the party or its predecessors,^[21] and by The Telegraph as 'a disaster' for the party.^[22]

• 1943 Newark by-election
• 2014 United Kingdom local elections
• 2014 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom
• List of United Kingdom by-elections
• Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election
• Opinion polling for the next United Kingdom general election in individual constituencies