It was therefore expected that the election would provide a platform for Shirley Williams of the SDP to return to Parliament, having lost her seat in 1979.

Pitt duly won the seat on the surge of support for the Alliance and a 24% swing, strengthening the Liberals' hand in negotiations with the SDP.

Pitt's win was the Alliance's first electoral success and delighted Liberal leader David Steel who said that the party had won a greater majority than they had expected.

"[2] The political editor of The Glasgow Herald, Geoffrey Parkhouse, said the result "shattered" both Labour and the Conservatives and noted that Margaret Thatcher and Michael Foot would fear that the result reflected the victorious Pitt's claim that the Alliance had "caught the imagination of the voters" and that as consequence there were "no longer any safe seats for Tory or Labour in the country.

[2] Pitt was not successful in retaining the seat in the 1983 general election, losing to Conservative candidate Humfrey Malins.