Bill Pitt
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/* By-election */ removed unsourced, dubious section - see talk page
{{Infobox Politician
| image = Replace this image male.svg <!-- only free-content images are allowed for depicting living people - see [[WP:NONFREE]] --> |
| name=Bill Pitt
| country=United Kingdom
| birth_date ={{Birth date and age|1937|7|17|df=y}}
| birth_place =[[Croydon]], [[England]]
| death_date =
| death_place =
| term_start =1981
| term_end=1983
| predecessor =[[Robert Taylor (UK politician)|Robert Taylor]]
| successor =[[Humfrey Malins]]
| spouse=
| constituency=[[Croydon North West (UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon North West]]
| party=[[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal Party]]
}}
'''William Henry Pitt''', commonly known as '''Bill Pitt''', (born [[17 July]], [[1937]]) is a [[United Kingdom|British]] politician. He was a [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] [[Member of Parliament]] between 1981 and 1983, and was the first candidate elected to Parliament under the banner of the [[SDP-Liberal Alliance]].
==Early life==
Pitt was born in [[Croydon]] and attended Heath Clark School there, followed by the London Nautical School and [[London South Bank University|South Bank Polytechnic]]. After [[National Service]] in the [[Royal Army Service Corps]], he became a lighting engineer. His initial alliance in politics was with the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]] and he was Chairman of South Norwood Young Conservatives in 1959–60. However he joined the Liberal Party in the 1960s.
==Liberal politics==
In the 1970s, Pitt worked as a local government officer for the [[London Borough of Lambeth]]. He stood as Liberal candidate for [[Croydon North West (UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon North West]] in [[United Kingdom general election, February 1974|February]] where he obtained a creditable 25% of the vote and [[United Kingdom general election, October 1974|October 1974]] in this election his vote, like that of most Liberal Candidates, fell and in the [[United Kingdom general election, 1979|1979]] general election he, like 60% of candidates in London and 50% overall, lost his deposit., . He was, however, popular within the party and served as Chairman of the London Liberal Party and as a member of the Liberal Party National Executive Committee and the Party Council from 1977 till 1981
==By-election==
When the sitting Conservative MP for his seat died, Pitt was quickly chosen as the prospective Liberal candidate for the seat. As a [[beard]]ed local government officer, he looked more representative of the old Liberal Party rather than the new Social Democratic Party which was in alliance with it. The choice of Pitt as byelection candidate was resisted by some senior members of the party who were keen to give the SDP a chance to win its first Parliamentary election (probably with [[Shirley Williams]] as the candidate), but Pitt and the local Liberal Association were insistent and there was no way to force them to cede the candidature. It should be noted that he had "nursed" the seat since 1974 and was the approved Candidate at National, Regional and Local level. Considerable pressure was put on the CNW Committee, especially on Leo Held - Chairman at the time - as well as the Regional Party. The Liberal Party Council of July 17th 1981 further endorsed Pitt and thus put an end to any speculation or manipulation
Pitt won the [[Croydon North West by-election, 1981|Croydon North West by-election]] on [[22 October]] [[1981]] with a majority of 3,254 (standing as "Liberal with SDP support"). During the campaign, posters summed up the relationship between the two parties as "The Alliance" and the term stuck as the official name thereafter, although it had originally been intended as a stopgap slogan. His was one of a series of famous by-election triumphs during the unpopular start of [[Margaret Thatcher]]'s government and the point of greatest unpopularity of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]].
==Parliament==
He served in the House of Commons as Liberal Home Affairs Spokesman and led for the Alliance throughout the first Police and Criminal Evidence Bill, which fell when [[Margaret Thatcher]] called a General Election. Pitt lost his seat to the Conservative, [[Humfrey Malins]], in the [[United Kingdom general election, 1983|1983 General Election]]. He fought two further elections for the Liberals in [[South Thanet (UK Parliament constituency)|South Thanet]] in 1987 and 1992.
==Later career==
In 1996 Pitt joined the Labour Party, disillusoned with the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] and concerned to prevent [[Jonathan Aitken]] holding his seat in Thanet South. He campaigned for Labour in Thanet and for Malcolm Wicks in Croydon North [[London Borough of Croydon|Croydon]] in the [[United Kingdom general election, 1997|1997 general election]]. He retired from full time employment in August 2003 having been Head of Training for the Canary Wharf Group) and is now the Managing Director of Epec Management Services Limited - a Management and Environmental Advice Consultancy. In 2005 he became editor of the ''Norwood Review'', the newsletter of the [[Norwood Society]].
==References==
* [[Dod's Parliamentary Companion]] for 1983
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{{succession box
| title = [[Member of Parliament]] for [[Croydon North West (UK Parliament constituency)|Croydon North West]]
| years = [[Croydon North West by-election, 1981|1981]]–[[United Kingdom general election, 1983|1983]]
| before = [[Robert Taylor (UK politician)|Robert Taylor]]
| after = [[Humfrey Malins]]
}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Pitt, Bill}}
[[Category:1937 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Members of the United Kingdom Parliament for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Liberal MPs (UK)]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1979-1983]]
[[Category:Politics of Croydon]]
[[Category:Alumni of London South Bank University]]