2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election would not take the weight of all the candidates. George Hargreaves stood for the Christian Party and is leader of that party. The party website said "he is asking the Haltemprice and Howden electorate to use their vote to demand a referendum on the European Union, which he believes is the greatest threat to our civil liberties". David Bishop was the candidate for the Church of the Militant Elvis Party. He previously stood for this party in Erewash in the United Kingdom general election, 2005 and in Brentwood and Ongar in 2001. David Davis, MP for the constituency and its
2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election but he said that the party intended to contest the seat as normal at the next general election. The Liberal Democrats came second in the 2005 and 2010 general elections in this seat and fourth in the 2015 general election. The Labour Party also declared that it would not contest the by-election. In the immediate aftermath of Davis's decision, Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the by-election a "farce", and Davis's opposite number, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said the Conservative Party was in "disarray". In a statement on the Labour Party's website, NEC Chair, Dianne Hayter, said: "This is a phoney