Leeds Central by-election, 1999
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The Member of Parliament for Leeds, Central, the Rt. Hon. Derek Fatchett, (Labour) died suddenly on May 9, 1999. The Labour Party rushed to organise for the by-election and moved the writ so that the election could be held on June 10, the same day as elections to the European Parliament.
The shortlist for the Labour candidacy included the Chair of Leeds Central Constituency Labour Party, Maggie Giles-Hill, and Shahid Malik, but the selection went to Hilary Benn who had been Special Adviser to David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment. The Conservatives chose their general election candidate Edward Wild. The campaign was subsumed with the European Parliament elections, and the result was an all-time low turnout for a byelection. The Liberal Democrats provided the strongest challenge and increased their vote by nearly 20%, but this was not enough to take the seat.
Results
The turnout was 19.6%.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share | Change |
| Hilary Benn | Labour | 6,361 | 48.2% | -21.4% |
| Peter Wild | Liberal Democrat | 4,068 | 30.8% | +19.6% |
| Edward Wild | Conservative | 1,618 | 12.3% | -1.4% |
| David Blackburn | Green Party | 478 | 3.6% | |
| Raymond Northgreaves | UK Independence Party | 353 | 2.7% | |
| Chris Hill | Left Alliance | 258 | 2.0% | |
| Julian Fitzgerald | Independent | 51 | 0.4% |
General Election result, 1997
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| Derek Fatchett | (Lab) | 25,766 | 69.6% |
| Edward Wild | (C) | 5,077 | 13.7% |
| David Freeman | (L Dem) | 4,164 | 11.3% |
| Philip Myers | (RP) | 1,042 | 2.8% |
| Michael Rix | (S Lab P) | 656 | 1.8% |
| Chris Hill | (SP) | 304 | 0.8% |