1986 Knowsley North by-election

1986 Knowsley North by-election

← 1983 13 November 1986 1987 →
Constituency of Knowsley North
Turnout	57.3% (12.2%)
First party Second party Third party   Con Candidate George Howarth Rosie Cooper Roger Brown Party Labour Liberal Conservative Popular vote 17,403 10,679 1,960 Percentage 56.3% 34.6% 6.3% Swing 8.2% 19.8% 13.8%
MP before election Robert Kilroy-Silk Labour Subsequent MP George Howarth Labour

The 1986 Knowsley North by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 13 November 1986 for the British House of Commons constituency of Knowsley North.

The Labour Party retained the seat with just over half of the votes, while the SDP-Liberal Alliance surged to achieve more than a third of the vote. The constituency had some of the highest levels of unemployment in the United Kingdom.

There was a 14% swing from Labour to the Alliance, continuing a trend in by-elections, with the local Militant Tendency harming the Labour vote in by-elections on Merseyside (see especially Liverpool Walton) ^{[citation needed]}.