Henley By Election - Who’s a Safe Bet?

June 23, 2008

Boris Johnson resigned his Parliamentary seat when he became London’s new Mayor, which is causing a by-election. The seat of Henley will be contested on June 26th, when voters will be asked to vote in a new Member of Parliament for their constituency.

Henley is one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, when the voters last had to choose their MP in 2005, the Conservatives won 53.5% of the votes. The Lib Dems returned 26% of the votes with Labour in third place with 14.7%.

This time around many parties are fielding a candidate, though after the Conservatives stormed the Crewe and Nantwich By Election last month there’s really not much doubt that they won’t return a similar performance.

The candidates are as follows:

John Howell - Conservative
Richard McKenzie - Labour
Stephen Kearney - Liberal Democrats
Mark Stevenson - Green Party
Chris Adams - UKIP
Derek Allpass - English Democrats
Harry Bear - The Fur Play Party
Dick Rodgers - The Common Good
Bananaman Owen - Monster Raving Loony Party
Timothy Rait - British National Party

Just how bad could it get for the Labour Party?

Having polls which put their popularity into third place, Labour are facing an uphill struggle on June 26th. Could it be as bad as not even getting their deposit back? Well the bookies are offering bets on this. Ladbrokes are offering 1/3 on Labour losing their deposit, or 9/4 on them not. In order to have their deposit returned, Labour has to secure at least 5% of the votes.

Poor old Mr Brown, he may well have the most humiliating morning on his anniversary of being in Number 10. Exactly one year on he potentially faces not only a By Election defeat, but one in which his party couldn’t even get 5% of the voters to back them.

Place a bet on the outcome of the Henley By Election

Ladbrokes are also offering odds on the outcome of the Henley By Election. Currently you can get odds of 1/25 on the Conservatives winning the seat; 8/1 on Liberal Democrats taking the seat or 100/1 on Labour managing the near impossible task of winning the Henley By Election.

Check the latest odds on the Henley By Election