The by-election was caused by the appointment of Donald Sumner, the Conservative Member of Parliament for Orpington, as a county court judge.
The appointment was generally thought to be making way for Peter Goldman, who had worked with Iain Macleod on the Conservatives' previous election manifesto.
The Liberal Party had reached its lowest ebb in the 1951 general election, gaining only 2.5% of the national vote and returning only six MPs.
All over the country, out of nowhere, Liberal candidates found themselves elected.’[6] Unlike Torrington in 1958, this was a victory by a large margin, and was not in a previously Liberal-supporting region.
There was much talk of ‘Orpington man’ '– the semi-mythical figure conjured up by the press at the time to help explain this unlikely suburban revolt.