1965 Leyton by-election

Labour lost a supposedly safe east London seat on January 21, 1965, and with it a Foreign Secretary. Patrick Gordon Walker had been beaten at Smethwick in the 1964 general election, and Leyton was meant to carry him back into the Commons. Instead the Conservative Ronald Buxton won by 205 votes, and Gordon Walker resigned from the Foreign Office. It remains the cautionary tale for any party tempted to parachute a minister into a vacancy: voters dislike being treated as a formality. Gordon Walker did win Leyton back at the 1966 general election.