2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election European Parliament elections. She stood on a civil rights platform, highlighting the measures supported by David Davis that she claimed threaten civil liberties, including his support for the death sentence. David Davis admitted that the Green Party were his most serious contenders in the by-election. Ronnie Carroll, standing for Make Politicians History, was the party's leader and also a twice-defeated Eurovision Song Contest entrant. He stood in Hampstead and Highgate in the 1997 general election for the "Rainbow Dream Ticket", a predecessor of "Make Politicians History", and in the 1997 Uxbridge by-election for the ProLife Alliance. He told the VoteWise
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