 In 1966 , the closest poll in UK history , Sir Harmar Nicholls held the seat by three votes after seven recounts . Nicholls was the Conservative member from 1950 to 1974 , when he lost in the October election of that year to Labour 's Michael Ward , having held on by just 22 votes after four recounts in the election eight months earlier . After he lost his seat he was created Baron Harmar @-@ Nicholls , of Peterborough in the county of Cambridgeshire and served , from 1979 to 1984 , as Member of the European Parliament for Greater Manchester South . David Cecil , 6th Marquess of Exeter , winner of 400m hurdles at the 1928 Summer Olympics , member of the International Olympic Committee for 48 years and chairman of the organising committee of the 1948 Summer Olympics , was the Conservative member from 1931 to 1943 . Lord Burghley , as he then was , succeeded the socialist writer and illustrator , Frank Horrabin , who was born in the city and elected under the leadership of Ramsay MacDonald in 1929 . 
