sentences:  Hughes had already been the MP for the forebear of virtually the whole seat.His February 1983 by-election win was one of the most bitterly contested by-elections in the UK as it involved Bob Mellish, its retired Labour MP of many years service, running a highly personal and homophobic campaign against the Labour candidate, Peter Tatchell against a backdrop of the Labour Party being at an immense low in the polls nationally amid success in the Falklands War and the start of a phase of strong positive economic growth under Margaret Thatcher.The result was the election of Simon Hughes as a Liberal in a post-War Labour stronghold.