Political Career
He joined the Labour Party in 1968 and was elected as a councillor to the Portsmouth City Council in 1970. He left the Labour Party and joined the new Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1981, and became the leader of the council in 1989 until his second election to the House of Commons, and he remains a member for Fratton on the city council. He was also elected to the Hampshire County Council in 1973, becoming the leader of the Labour group on the council in 1977 until he left party, leading the council 1989-97 when he stood down.
He contested Portsmouth South for the SDP at the 1983 General Election but lost to the sitting Conservative MP Bonner Pink by 12,335 votes. Pink died on 6 May 1984, and Hancock was elected, again for the SDP, at the by-election by 1,341 votes. In his book Time To Declare the SDP leader David Owen claimed that Hancock's victory prevented a Liberal attempt to subsume the SDP before the 1987 General Election. However, he later lost his seat in the 1987 General Election to the Tory David Martin by just 205 votes. He narrowly lost the seat to Martin again at the 1992 General Election, this time by just 242 votes. He also contested the European Parliament seat of Wight and Hampshire South in 1994. He returned to parliament at the 1997 General Election, defeating Martin by 4,327 votes and has held the seat for the Liberal Democrats since.
He was promoted to the frontbench by Paddy Ashdown in 1997 as the spokesman on foreign and commonwealth affairs until 2000 when he was moved by Charles Kennedy to speak on the environment, transport and the regions, but returned to the backbenches following the 2001 General Election.
It was reported that he signed nomination forms for more than one candidate in the 2006 Liberal Democrat leadership election, in order to ensure a 'proper contest'.
Read more about this topic: Mike Hancock (British Politician)
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