Senior members of the party sympathised with Taverne and wanted the party to withdraw in his favour. Peter Hain, chairman of the Young Liberals, demanded a Liberal candidate stand in opposition to Taverne "who stands on the right of the Labour Party and whose record shows no signs of radicalism". The party eventually decided not to fight, but its success at the Sutton and Cheam byelection in December 1972 led to increased pressure to stand. Eventually the local party's decision not to fight was endorsed. The candidates list was rounded off with two minor candidates, Jean Justice and Malcolm Waller. Justice, son of a Belgian diplomat and a London property consultant, was chairman of the A6 Murder Committee. The committee's aim was to prove the innocence of James Hanratty who had been hanged in 1962 for the murder of Michael Gregsten. In the mid-1960s, Taverne had served as a Home Office Minister and rejected a plea for a public inquiry into the case. Malcolm Waller formed the "Majority Rule Party" which argued that "the will of the majority of the people shall prevail, even when it conflicts with the will of members of Parliament". A Mr James Blackwell from Cheshire also telephoned the Returning Officer to ask for nomination papers but did not arrive. The writ for the byelection was issued on 9 February, with polling on 1 March; two other writs for byelections in Labour-held constituencies were moved simultaneously. The Labour Party pulled in a large number of senior shadow cabinet members to speak in support of John Dilks, described by "The Times" as "probably unequalled in any byelection". Taverne, by contrast, organised only one meeting at which others spoke in his support, to which he invited the Bishop of Southwark Mervyn Stockwood and newspaper columnist Bernard Levin. Dilks insisted that he would campaign on issues like inflation, the future of Lincoln, and the EEC, and predicted Taverne would come third. Guinness' campaign was marked by his maverick public statements, and he had to be "protected" by planted questions at a public meeting. He came to be treated as a joke figure by the media, being much quoted when he said that convicted murderers should be given razor blades in order that they could "do the decent thing" and save the state the cost of keeping them in jail. The campaign saw extensive coverage in the press and on broadcast media. On 22 February the "Daily Telegraph" reported the results of an opinion poll which showed Taverne had a lead of only 2% over the official Labour candidate, well within the margin of error.