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Crewe and Nantwich parliamentary seat | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 58.2% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Location of Crewe and Nantwich within Cheshire | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 2008 Crewe and Nantwich by-election was a parliamentary by-election held on 22 May 2008, for the House of Commons constituency of Crewe and Nantwich, in Cheshire, England. The election was won by the Conservative party candidate Edward Timpson, who defeated the Labour party candidate Tamsin Dunwoody, on a swing from Labour to Conservative of 17.6%, a swing that in a general election would have seen nine Labour cabinet ministers lose their seats.[citation needed]
At the time of the by-election, a swing of 7% in a general election would have seen the Conservatives gain an overall majority over Labour.[1] This was the first seat gained by the Conservatives in a by-election since the 1982 Mitcham and Morden by-election and the first seat they had taken from Labour in a by-election since the 1978 Ilford North by-election thirty years earlier.