FORMER Warrington Borough Council Chief Executive William (Bill) Lawton has died aged 92.
Grappenhall-born Mr Lawton held the post at Warrington Borough Council for 16 years, from 1973 until 1989 and after he retired he was awarded the OBE for his work with the Pain Relief Foundation.
Living in Chester following his retirement, he worked with the foundation which helps find new and improved methods of treating and seeking cures for chronic pain conditions.
At the time of the award, he said his roots were in Warrington with his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents all being Warringtonians.
His grandfather had been a journalist in the town for many years.
He was married to wife Susan and had a son and a daughter.
During his time at the town hall he worked closely with the New Town Development Corporation.
Mr Lawton features in a piece being written on the 1981 Warrington by-election by former Warrington South MP Mike Hall – a draft of which features below.
Bill Lawton came to national prominence during the 1981 Warrington By-Election. The sitting Labour and Co-operative M.P. for Warrington, Sir Tom Williams Q.C., was appointed as a Circuit Judge on 1st June 1981, becoming the first and last M.P. to take a paid office under the Crown, which forced his resignation as a Member of Parliament.
As Chief Executive of Warrington Borough Council Bill Lawton was the designated ‘Acting Returning Officer’ for the by-election.
On 26th June 1981 the Labour Party Chief Whip, in the House of Commons, Michael Cocks MP moved the Parliamentary writ for the Warrington by-election to take place on 16th July 1981.
Parliamentary by-elections always put their constituency into the national spotlight because they deliver a snapshot assessment on the popularity of the Government and the Opposition Parties.
However, the 1981 Warrington by-election took on extra significance because of the recent launch of the SDP (Social Democratic Party). It gave them their first opportunity to contest a national election.
The SDP was launched on 26th March 1981 and was formed from mainly former Labour Party supporters who were disillusioned by the Party’s move to the hard left.
Everyone expected the SDP to field Shirley Williams, the former Labour Secretary of State for Education, as their candidate. When Shirley ducked the challenge Roy Jenkins, the former Labour Home Secretary, Chancellor of the Exchequer and President of the European Commission, boldly stepped forward to become the SDP candidate for the Warrington by-election.
This presented a moment of pure opportunism for an obscure political organisation called the Social Democratic Party founded prior to the 1979 General Election.
The Manchester-based Social Democratic Party had fielded C Campbell as their candidate in the 1979 General Election in the Warrington constituency and gained 144 votes.
At the start of the Warrington by-election the Manchester based SDP submitted nomination papers for Roy Jenkins to stand as their candidate. In fact, their ‘Roy Jenkins’ was actually called Douglas Parkin. He claimed he had changed his name by deed-poll, at the cost of 50p, to Roy Jenkins.
Parkin said at the time the SDP had pinched his party’s name so he was pinching their candidate’s name.
The real Roy Jenkins objected to the nomination on the grounds that it was an abuse of the right of nomination “and an obvious unreality”.
The issue was raised in the House of Lords on 2nd July 1981 by Lord Belstead and The Earl of Kinnoull replied on behalf of the Government saying it was not for the government to comment whist the by-election was underway.
On 7th July 1981, Acting Returning Office Bill Lawton, rejected the nomination. The grounds for the rejection were that the nomination contravened Parliamentary Election Rules in that ‘the particulars of the nominee are not as required by law in that the names stated on the nomination paper are not the lawful names of the nominee and are insufficient to identify him as required by rule 7 (3) of said rules’.
On 17th July 1981, the day after the by-election, Douglas Parkin petitioned the High Court to quash the result. High Court Judge Mr. Justice Ewbank dismissed the petition and ordered Parkin to pay costs.
The Warrington 1981 by-election will be remembered for many remarkable things. Bill Lawton rightly received credit for rejecting Roy Jenkins/Douglas Parkin’s nomination to stand in the by-election. His decision was upheld by the High Court setting a legal precedent.
