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26 November 1981

Shirley Williams wins the Crosby by-election for the SDP/Liberal Alliance

Both Shirley Williams and Roy Jenkins – another founding member of the SDP were not elected to Parliament at this point. Jenkins had fought Warrington earlier in the year but had narrowly failed to win the seat but it was Williams who was selected for the campaign which was to deliver the first SDP Member of Parliament through an election. The Liberal Party did not field a candidate following the creation of the Liberal/SDP Alliance. The seat had been regarded as a safe Conservative seat until this point and Graham Page, the previous MP, had a majority of 19,272. Williams turned that into an SDP majority of 5,289, securing 49% of the vote. She held the seat until the Tories regained it at the 1983 general election. She was created a life peer in 1993 as The Baroness Williams of Crosby of Stevenage in the County of Hertfordshire and served as Liberal Democrat leader in the House of Lords from 2001 until 2004.

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We publish the Journal of Liberal History and a range of books

The Liberal Democrat History Group promotes the discussion and research of topics relating to the histories of the British Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties, the Liberal Party and the SDP, and of liberalism more broadly.

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We aim to appeal to anyone with an interest in the history of British Liberalism, whether academics, party activists or spare-time students of political history.

Things we do:

Publish the quarterly Journal of Liberal History, containing articles, book reviews, biographies, and meeting reports

Publish books, including Peace, Reform and Liberation: A History of Liberal Politics in Britain 1679-2011Dictionary of Liberal Thought, and Great Liberal Speeches

Make resources available to students of Liberal history, including news of research in progress and guides to archive sources (see Research resources)

Provide a concise history of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties, along with a more extensive set of historical articles and biographies – the Liberal History Online project, available through themes and time periods.

Publish shorter booklets as concise reference sources, including Liberal History (a concise history of the Liberal Democrats and its predecessor parties), Liberal Leaders 1828-1899Liberal Leaders of the Twentieth Century and Mothers of Liberty: Women who built British Liberalism

Organise discussion meetings, both in London and as fringe meetings at Liberal Democrat conferences

“There are hazards in everything one does, but there are greater hazards in doing nothing.”

Shirley Williams

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