Eddisbury by-election, 1999
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On May 25, 1999 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office announced the appointment of the Member of Parliament for Eddisbury in Cheshire, the Rt. Hon. Sir Alastair Goodlad, as High Commissioner to the Commonwealth of Australia. This created a vacancy in the seat which Sir Alastair had retained as the Conservative candidate in the 1997 general election. Sir Alastair accepted the office of Steward and Bailiff of the Three Hundreds of Chiltern on June 28, 1999 to formally vacate his seat.
The Conservatives selected Stephen O'Brien, a former SDP member who lived in Chichester, to defend the seat. Labour nominated Margaret Hanson, wife of David Hanson (Labour MP for Delyn), who had also fought in the 1997 election. Labour had been only just over 1,000 votes behind the Conservatives in 1997 and ran an energetic campaign, raising the issue of fox hunting which she pledged to ban. Prime Minister Tony Blair went to the constituency to campaign for her, an unusual move as it is convention for incumbent Prime Ministers not to visit byelection campaigns.
Polling day was July 22, and the result was a virtual carbon copy of that in 1997; each party had fought to a standstill.
Results
The turnout was 51.4%.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share | Change |
| Stephen O'Brien | Conservative | 15,465 | 44.8% | +2.3% |
| Margaret Hanson | Labour | 13,859 | 40.2% | +0.1% |
| Paul Roberts | Liberal Democrat | 4,757 | 13.8% | +0.6% |
| Alan Hope | Monster Raving Loony | 238 | 0.7% | |
| Roger Everest | Independent Conservative | 98 | 0.3% | |
| Dinah Grice | Natural Law Party | 80 | 0.2% |
General Election result, 1997
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| Alastair Goodlad | (C) | 21,027 | 42.5% |
| Margaret Hanson | (Lab) | 19,842 | 40.1% |
| David Reaper | (L Dem) | 6,540 | 13.2% |
| Norine Napier | (RP) | 2,041 | 4.2% |