Martin Bell - Independent Politician

Independent Politician

In 1997, twenty-four days before that year's British General Election, Martin Bell announced that he was leaving the BBC to stand as an independent candidate in the Tatton constituency in Cheshire. Tatton was one of the safest Conservative seats in the country, where the sitting Conservative Member of Parliament, Neil Hamilton, was embroiled in "sleaze" allegations. The Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates in Bell's favour in a plan masterminded by Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's press secretary.

Hamilton was trounced, and Martin Bell was elected an MP with a majority of 11,077 votes – overturning a Conservative majority of over 22,000 – and thus became the first successful independent parliamentary candidate since 1951.

He did not often speak in the House of Commons, and when he did, it was mostly on matters of British policy in the former Yugoslavia and the Third World. Although Bell voted with the Labour government of Tony Blair on many issues, on a few others, such as reducing the homosexual age of consent and banning fox hunting, he voted with the Conservatives. On 12 November 1997, he was cheered from the Conservative benches when he asked Blair about the Bernie Ecclestone affair, "Does the Prime Minister agree that the perception of wrong-doing can be as damaging to public confidence as the wrong-doing itself? Have we slain one dragon only to have another take its place, with a red rose in its mouth?".

He was urged by large numbers of his Tatton constituents to stand again in the 2001 general election. Bell said that the only thing which could make him change his mind would be Neil Hamilton being re-selected by the Tatton Conservative Party as candidate for the next General Election. However, future Chancellor George Osborne was selected in March 1999, as Conservative party candidate for Tatton. Hamilton lost his libel case against Mohammed Al-Fayed in December 1999, ending any prospect of him making a political comeback. Though he regretted making the pledge of saying he would only serve for one term, Bell stuck to his promise.

In 2001, Bell was nonetheless persuaded to stand as an independent candidate against another Conservative MP Eric Pickles in the "safe" Essex constituency of Brentwood and Ongar, where there were accusations that the local Conservative Association had been infiltrated by a Pentecostal church. Having garnered nearly 32% of the vote coming second, Bell announced his retirement from politics, saying that "winning one and losing one is not a bad record for an amateur".

The Channel 4 drama Mr White Goes to Westminster was loosely based on Bell's political career.