The of February 24 , 1983 occurred after the resignation of Robert Mellish , who had represented the constituency and its predecessors since 1946 . Mellish, who had been Chief Whip until 1976 , was increasingly disenchanted with the left-wing moves of the Labour Party and had announced his retirement from Parliament (effective at the next election) in 1981 . He was recruited by the Conservative government to the board of the London Docklands Development Corporation ; as he did not wish to be disqualified, the post was made non-salaried until such time as Mellish chose to accept payment. This meant that Mellish had a paid job to go to as soon as he wanted.
On November 7 , 1981 Bermondsey Labour Party selected Peter Tatchell , its Secretary, as prospective Parliamentary candidate. Tatchell was a leading member of the left-wing faction which had taken control of the local party the previous year. He was also a contributor to ''London Labour Briefing'', a magazine which circulated among the London left, and had written an article suggesting the use of extra-Parliamentary Direct Action by the Labour Party. This article came to the attention of James Wellbeloved , a London Labour MP who had defected to the SDP ; Wellbeloved then referred to it in a Parliamentary Question to Margaret Thatcher on December 3 .
Labour Party leader Michael Foot then denounced the article and declared "the individual concerned is not an endorsed member of the Labour Party and as far as I'm concerned never will be". (It was suggested by some that Foot had confused Peter Tatchell with Peter Taaffe , then the leader of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency , and that his denunciation was so strong that he could not later retract it without appearing weak.) Foot later changed "endorsed member" to "endorsed candidate", and at the next meeting of the Labour Party National Executive Committee Tatchell was narrowly rejected as a candidate. Mellish was not reassured about the future direction of the Labour Party and resigned from it on August 2 , 1982 , a clear preliminary to resigning his seat, which he did by taking the Chiltern Hundreds on November 1 . The left-wing of the Labour Party, defending the right of Bermondsey to select a candidate of its own choosing, managed to get agreement that Tatchell would be eligible for selection, and he was duly selected again in January 1983 .
Tabloid newspapers opposed to the Labour left had begun investigating Tatchell's background when he was denounced by Michael Foot, and in particular his activities with the Gay Liberation Front in the early 1970s. Several stories were published which made it inferentially clear that he was Gay .
At the 1981 GLC Election the Liberal Party had come second in Bermondsey. They chose their GLC candidate Simon Hughes , a Barrister who moved to the constituency earlier that year, to fight the byelection. The Conservatives chose Robert Hughes (no relation), who was a GLC Councillor in Croydon . Among those who applied for the Conservative nomination but were not chosen was Sarah Keays, then having an affair with Cecil Parkinson .
The right-wing former Labour leader of Southwark Borough Council John O'Grady, who had been a target for the left-wing faction locally, also decided to stand under the banner 'Real Bermondsey Labour' with Robert Mellish's support and encouragement. His campaign was dominated by personal opposition to Tatchell and defence of his leadership of the Council. 12 other candidates stood, including Screaming Lord Sutch and Dowager Lady Jane Birdwood .
The Labour campaign started disastrously when it was discovered that the first leaflets had been printed at Cambridge Heath Press, owned by the Militant Tendency (a far left group practising Entryism in the Labour Party which the party leadership was determined to remove; its five key members were expelled two days before polling day). The leaflets were all pulped and reprinted, but the cost of the first printing still counted against the limit for election spending.
There was much controversy over Tatchell's homosexuality. The Labour party persuaded Tatchell to keep quiet about his sexual orientation, although he had previously declared himself 'out', while various campaigners for opposition candidates as well as many within the Labour party, made homophobic comments about Tatchell. More press stories attacking Tatchell inspired widespread Graffiti throughout the constituency which referred to him in derogatory terms. Some of those putting up posters in his support found their windows attacked. Tatchell himself received hate mail, including a live Bullet , and was attacked when out in the street.
Some of the other byelection candidates joined in: John O'Grady ( Tatchell (pictured looking very effeminate) with Queen Elizabeth II . The leaflet gave Tatchell's home address and telephone number.
During the byelection, members of the Liberal Party were accused of having joined in homophobic attacks on Tatchell, which (who subsequently refused to join the Liberal Democrats and became a member of the continuing Liberal Party instead), wrote in the Usenet newsgroup uk.politics.electoral on May 19 1997 :
:As a member of the Liberal Gay Action Group which produced and wore the 'I have been kissed by Peter Tatchell' and 'I haven't been kissed by Peter Tatchell' badges, I think I should explain why the badges were produced and worn. (Although I wasn't there on the day that they were worn and had I been, mine would have read 'I wouldn't want to be kissed by Peter Tatchell').
:We were furious at the way in which Peter was attempting to go back into the closet (something which he has since admitted was wrong). This was our protest.
In an interview with Simon Edge of '' The Independent '' published on December 17 , 1996 , the Liberal agent in the byelection Andy Ellis was asked whether he approved of the homophobic attacks on Peter Tatchell undertaken by the Liberal Gay Action Group and by other parties, and replied "Nothing went on in Bermondsey that we were unhappy with".
Ironically given the Liberal campaigners criticism of Tatchell for being 'in the closet', it emerged during campaigning for the Leadership Of The Liberal Democrats in January 2006 , in an interview with Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun [http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2006040287,00.html] that Hughes had had homosexual relationships himself, and had used a gay chat service known as 'Man Talk'. He apologised in the interview for not being upfront about his sexuality, having denied that he was gay in an interview a week earlier [http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200601/49043f67-f051-49ab-93aa-2d1e66600be5.htm] admitting that he "gave a reply that wasn’t untrue but was clearly misleading."
Hughes also apologised for the actions of Liberals in the campaign, saying that "I regret that in a campaign, actually run often by agents and organisers, the candidate does not have nearly as much say as perhaps they should have, but I take responsibility". "I have never been comfortable about the whole of that campaign, as Peter knows, and I said that to him in the past . . . Where there were things that were inappropriate or wrong, I apologise for that."
The one controversial issue which was linked to Hughes was a leaflet describing the contest as a "STRAIGHT CHOICE" between Liberal and Labour. The same slogan had been used by Liberal candidates in other byelections, in an attempt to suggest to the electors that the party was the only credible challenger to the incumbent party [http://www.geocities.com/byelections83/brecon85/libbre852b.jpg However, Hughes in 2006 said that it was 'an unacceptable form of language', and 'those are the sort of things that shouldn't have happened' [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=374935&in_page_id=1770&ct=5 , appearing to acknowledge that the slogan had acted as a slur against Tatchell.
When asked for his opinions on the Liberal Democrat leadership candidates in 2006, Tatchell, by then a member of the Green Party , said that he had forgiven Hughes, saying "Simon benefited from these dirty tricks, but that was 23 years ago - I don't hold a grudge. It's time to forgive and move on." {Link without Title} He added "if I were a Lib Dem member, I would vote for Simon Hughes as party leader".
Bermondsey was one of the first byelections to be extensively polled. The polls showed, at first, that the Labour vote was substantially down on the 1979 election figures but that none of the rival candidates were particularly close. As the campaign went on the Liberal candidate began to move into a clear second position and the other candidates faded. Later in the campaign there were rumours which claimed that the right-wing of the Labour Party nationally wished to lose the seat, as it would prove that left-wing Labour candidates were unelectable. By the eve of poll it was clear that large numbers of previously Labour voters were defecting to other parties, and that non-Labour voters were lining up in support of the Liberal candidate as the one most likely to beat Labour.
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