low for a by-election. Smith held the seat for the Conservatives, with a share of the vote comparable to the general election. The Glasgow Heralds William Russell stated that the outcome "firmly endorsed" the First Thatcher Ministry's conduct of the war. Party chairman Cecil Parkinson claimed that the result was better than he had expected. Tyler increased the Alliance's share from 17.1% for Liberals in 1979 to 26.8%. Russell agreed with Liberal Whip Alan Beith's claim that the more than 9% increase was much better than expected, writing that "the Alliance bandwagon may have been temporally stalled" during the war, but the result had some positives for the Alliance. Labour's vote was nearly halved from 20.2% in 1979 to 10.4%, and Blair lost his deposit. Russell described Blair ("a very good candidate") finishing in third place "a disaster" for Labour. The journalist attributed the poor outcome to "internal squabbling of the past year between Left and Right". Aftermath Smith held the seat until the 1997 general election, when in March 1997 he was forced to stand down at the last minute over the cash-for-questions affair. He was replaced by Dominic Grieve. Tyler was a senior campaign organiser for the Alliance at further elections in the 1980s, and returned to Parliament at the 1992 general election, as MP for North Cornwall. He stood down in 2005, and was made a life peer. Despite the party's poor showing Blair was regarded as having fought a good campaign, and he was selected as Labour candidate for the newly created safe seat of Sedgefield in County Durham. He won Sedgefield at the 1983 general election, and after a successful career in opposition he won the Labour Party leadership election in 1994. He led Labour to a landslide victory at the 1997 general election, and became Prime Minister on 2 May 1997, a position he held until 27 June 2007. Votes See also Beaconsfield constituency Beaconsfield Lists of United Kingdom by-elections United Kingdom by-election records References Beaconsfield by-election Beaconsfield by-election Tony Blair By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Buckinghamshire constituencies South Bucks District 20th century in Buckinghamshire Beaconsfield Beaconsfield by-election