Uxbridge
Conservative hold

The first by-election of the 17 in the 1997 Parliament occurred in Uxbridge, and it provided the first Conservative win anywhere since William Hague's own entry to the Commons at Richmond (Yorkshire) way back in 1989, thus ending a run of 37 failures, 19 at the tail end of the 1987 Parliament and 18 during the 1992 Parliament (by-elections occur with a considerable degree of consistency). John Randall's task was made easier by the very short time that had elapsed since the general election, which had been followed only seven days later by the death of Sir Michael Shersby, who had held Uxbridge by just 724 votes; and also by the imposition of a "headquarters" Labour candidate, whereas Randall himself was a member of the family which owned a well known store in Uxbridge, an independently minded Middlesex town on the very western edge of Greater London. He should be re-elected for (almost) a second full term, but it might be as well to remember that if Labour should manage to secure a further swing in Greater London in 2001, this is statistically the first of the remaining Tory seats which would fall.

John Randall is a collector's item: a Tory MP with a beard who votes against fox hunting, has a degree in Serbo-Croat and likes bird-watching in Cuba. He was elected at a by-election in 1997, when as a local department store owner he saw-off a Labour candidate dubbed an intruder for coming from Hammersmith. Variously compared to Forrest Gump and a garden gnome, he was born in 1955, educated at Merchant Taylor's Northwood and the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, London and inherited the managing directorship of Randall's, his family's Uxbridge store, in 1988. Unpretentious and not overly partisan, he was sympathetic towards the Serbs in the Kosovo conflict and likes reading Russian novels on the tube journey (18 stops) in from Uxbridge.

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   Thriving Wealthy Achievers, Suburban Areas 17.47% 14.99% 116.53 Affluent Greys, Rural Communities 0.00% 2.13% 0.00 Prosperous Pensioners, Retirement Areas 0.66% 2.49% 26.49 Expanding Affluent Executives, Family Areas 3.65% 4.43% 82.58 Well-Off Workers, Family Areas 5.52% 7.27% 75.84 Rising Affluent Urbanites, Town & City Areas 11.69% 2.56% 455.64 Prosperous Professionals, Metropolitan Areas 1.83% 2.04% 89.75 Better-Off Executives, Inner City Areas 1.79% 3.94% 45.51 Settling Comfortable Middle Agers, Mature Home Owning Areas 18.67% 13.04% 143.22 Skilled Workers, Home Owning Areas 10.99% 12.70% 86.51 Aspiring New Home Owners, Mature Communities 9.20% 8.14% 113.00 White Collar Workers, Better-Off Multi Ethnic Areas 5.93% 4.02% 147.33 Striving Older People, Less Prosperous Areas 1.55% 3.19% 48.72 Council Estate Residents, Better-Off Homes 9.63% 11.31% 85.16 Council Estate Residents, High Unemployment 1.40% 3.06% 45.71 Council Estate Residents, Greatest Hardship 0.01% 2.52% 0.51 People in Multi-Ethnic, Low-Income Areas 0.00% 2.10% 0.00 Unclassified Unclassified 0.00% 0.06% 1.86

Area Percent GB Percent Index GB=100   £0-5K 4.37% 9.41% 46.47 £5-10K 10.07% 16.63% 60.55 £10-15K 12.64% 16.58% 76.24 £15-20K 12.47% 13.58% 91.83 £20-25K 11.06% 10.39% 106.38 £25-30K 9.29% 7.77% 119.55 £30-35K 7.60% 5.79% 131.28 £35-40K 6.14% 4.33% 141.63 £40-45K 4.92% 3.27% 150.71 £45-50K 3.94% 2.48% 158.67 £50-55K 3.15% 1.90% 165.65 £55-60K 2.53% 1.47% 171.78 £60-65K 2.04% 1.15% 177.17 £65-70K 1.65% 0.91% 181.92 £70-75K 1.34% 0.72% 186.12 £75-80K 1.09% 0.57% 189.84 £80-85K 0.89% 0.46% 193.14 £85-90K 0.73% 0.37% 196.08 £90-95K 0.61% 0.31% 198.71 £95-100K 0.50% 0.25% 201.05 £100K + 2.82% 1.34% 210.02