Revision as of 22:18, 16 June 2023 edit Citation bot (talk \| contribs) Bots 5,182,513 edits Add: date. \| Use this bot. Report bugs. \| Suggested by Anas1712 \| #UCB_webform 1807/3846 ← Previous edit		Revision as of 20:47, 25 June 2023 edit undo 85.255.237.222 (talk) No edit summary Tags: Mobile edit Mobile web edit Next edit →
Line 104: ===1997 United Kingdom general election=== At the [[1997 United Kingdom general election\|1997 UK general election]], Goldsmith stood as a candidate for the Referendum Party in the London constituency of [[Putney (UK Parliament constituency)\|Putney]], against the former [[Conservative Party (UK)\|Conservative]] Minister [[David Mellor]], MP, in an electoral contest in which Goldsmith polled 3.5% of the vote. The declaration of the Putney result, which was televised and nationally broadcast live on the night of 1 May 1997, saw a charged atmosphere at the count, with a rowdy crowd in attendance of anti-European Union activists from the Referendum Party, and the recently inaugurated [[~~United Kingdom~~UK Independence Party]] (which would itself receive only a couple of hundred votes in Putney that night). An acrimonious confrontation between Mellor (who had lost his seat to the Labour Party candidate) and Goldsmith developed on stage after Mellor, in what was to be his valedictory address from politics, personally insulted Goldsmith's candidacy. During the speech, part of the crowd, Goldsmith and some of the other candidates began a gleefully defiant collective repetitive shouting chant of "Out!" in response, in celebration of the perceived substantive damage having been done to a prominent member of the Westminster Parliamentary political order of which they had become so contemptuous.<ref>Film of the scene broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation, 1 May 1997, 'BBC Rewind: David Mellor loses Putney', published on BBC's website 17 November 2014. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-29934257/bbc-rewind-david-mellor-loses-putney</ref> Goldsmith's electoral performance at Putney had been reasonably insubstantial, in a British electoral culture in which it is notoriously difficult for new political parties or maverick politicians to establish themselves. He was also terminally ill during the election, a fact which he had kept secret beyond his closest personal circle, and which had limited his ability to campaign. When interviewed by the BBC's [[Michael Buerk]] during the count prior to the result being announced, he described his chances as being "very remote" - the 1,518 votes that his candidacy had garnered had not in itself defeated the incumbent Mellor, who had lost by 2,976 votes; moreover it amounted to less than 5% of the total votes cast, this being insufficient for Goldsmith to retain the candidate's financial deposit of £500, a part of the 20 million pounds that he had reportedly poured into ''The Referendum Party'' in its brief existence.<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/files/dms/Candidates-UK-Parl-Election-2007-06_26787-11604__E__N__S__W__.pdf\|archive-url=https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20080403222004/http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/files/dms/Candidates-UK-Parl-Election-2007-06_26787-11604__E__N__S__W__.pdf\|url-status=dead\|archive-date=2008-04-03\|title=UK Parliamentary election procedures}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{cite news\|last1=Honigsbaum\|first1=Mark\|last2=Blackhurst\|first2=Chris\|date=19 July 1997\|title=Maverick billionaire Goldsmith dies with wife and mistress at his side\|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/maverick-billionaire-goldsmith-dies-with-wife-and-mistress-at-his-side-1251524.html\|access-date=21 December 2020\|website=The Independent\|language=en}}</ref> Mellor had correctly predicted at the count that the Referendum Party was "dead in the water", and indeed the party did disappear with Goldsmith's death two months after the election. However, many of the Referendum Party's activists and voters would go on to join and support the nascent [[United Kingdom Independence Party]], which would ultimately lead a sea-change in the nation's politics, which almost twenty years later would see the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union in a [[2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum\|referendum]] on the issue.<ref>{{cite news\|last=Fidler\|first=Matt\|date=24 June 2016\|title=How newspapers covered Brexit – in pictures\|language=en-GB\|work=The Guardian\|url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/gallery/2016/jun/24/newspapers-brexit-front-pages-eu\|access-date=2020-12-21\|issn=0261-3077}}</ref>

James Goldsmith: Difference between revisions