On 5 June 2014, a by-election was held for the UK parliamentary constituency of Newark, following the resignation of Patrick Mercer. Conservative Robert Jenrick won the seat with a majority of 7,403.
Background.
Mercer resigned the Conservative Party whip on 31 May 2013 after an investigation by the BBC's "Panorama" programme regarding allegations of paid lobbying without registering the interest. He was paid £4,000 for asking questions in Parliament, and the "Panorama" team considered that he asked five parliamentary questions, but declared only £2,000 of the £4,000. As a consequence, he said at the time that he would not stand in the 2015 general election.
On 29 April, after being told that the Committee on Standards would recommend that he be suspended from the House of Commons for six months, Mercer announced that he would resign his seat: he told journalists on College Green that he was standing down from "God's county of Nottinghamshire". Mercer was appointed Steward and Bailiff of the Three Chiltern Hundreds on 30 April 2014, a mechanism by which MPs resign.
The writ was moved on 1 May 2014 for the by-election to be held on 5 June.
Candidates.
The nominations closed at 4pm on Tuesday 13 May with 11 candidates being nominated.
The local Conservative Party had already selected Robert Jenrick to fight the seat. Jenrick trained as a solicitor and is a director of Christie's auction house. He is married with two children.
Labour selected 27-year-old councillor Michael Payne, a former students' union president and current deputy leader of Gedling Borough Council.
The Liberal Democrats chose David Watts, leader of Broxtowe Borough Council.
Nigel Farage was immediately interviewed on the evening of 29 April and said he was "tempted" to stand, but the next morning he ruled himself out. UKIP instead announced that outspoken former Conservative and current UKIP MEP for the East Midlands Roger Helmer would stand in the by-election.
The Bus Pass Elvis Party leader and perennial election candidate, David Bishop, announced on 6 May that he would stand in the by-election after taking fourth place ahead of the Liberal Democrats in a recent local authority by-election in Clifton North ward, Nottingham.
Previous result.
! scope="col" colspan="2" style="width: 130px"|Party
! scope="col" style="width: 17em"|Candidate
! scope="col" style="width: 5em"|Votes
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"|%
! scope="col" style="width: 3.5em"| ;templatestyles src="Template:Tooltip/styles.css" / ;±%
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" | Majority
! colspan="3" style="text-align: right; margin-right: 0.5em" scope=row | Turnout
! style="text-align:right;" | Swing
Notes.
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