Dick Taverne

Formal switch, tested by voters. When his Lincoln constituency party deselected him for backing Common Market entry, Taverne resigned his seat and fought a by-election in 1973 as 'Democratic Labour', winning with a majority of over 13,000. He held on narrowly in February 1974 and lost that October. He is the rare defector who sought his voters' verdict immediately, and his campaign was a forerunner of the SDP split eight years later. He later sat in the Lords as a Liberal Democrat.