Ceredigion by-election, 2000
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The Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament for Ceredigion, Cynog Dafis, was unexpectedly elected to the National Assembly for Wales in May 1999 and decided to give up his seat in the House of Commons in order to concentrate on his work in the Assembly. By accepting the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead on January 10, 2000, he formally vacated his seat.
Plaid Cymru selected Simon Thomas, who had been their Director of Policy and responsible for writing their manifestos for the 1997 general election and 1999 Assembly election. Labour, who had come second in the previous general election, chose a local social worker, Maria Battle.
The election campaign was dominated by the issue of Objective 1 funding. The constituency was part of the area of Wales that was granted Objective One status in 1999, but the large amount of European funding this status gave access to was only available if the UK government provided the same amount. The Government insisted that it could not give any commitment until the full public sector spending round was complete. The other candidates demanded an immediate commitment, and the Chief Reporter for Wales on Sunday newspaper Martin Shipton stood as a single issue candidate demanding 'Match Funding now'.
Polling day in the by-election was February 3. Plaid Cymru retained the seat comfortably, with the Liberal Democrats taking second in a seat they had previously held. Labour slipped to fourth place, which was regarded as a poor showing.
Results
The turnout was 46%.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share | Change |
| Simon Thomas | Plaid Cymru | 10,716 | 42.8% | +1.1% |
| Mark Williams | Liberal Democrat | 5,768 | 23.0% | +6.5% |
| Paul Davies | Conservative | 4,138 | 16.5% | +1.6% |
| Maria Battle | Labour | 3,612 | 14.4% | -9.9% |
| John Bufton | UK Independence Party | 487 | 1.9% | |
| John Davies | Independent Green | 289 | 1.2% | |
| Martin Shipton | Independent | 55 | 0.2% |
General Election result, 1997
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| Cynog Dafis | (PC) | 16,728 | 41.6% |
| Robert Harris | (Lab) | 9,767 | 24.3% |
| Dai Davies | (L Dem) | 6,616 | 16.5% |
| Felix Aubel | (C) | 5,983 | 14.9% |
| Christopher Leaney | (RP) | 1,092 | 2.7% |