[1][2] Margaret Hodge, leader of Islington London Borough Council from 1982 to 1992, was selected as the Labour candidate and was the clear favourite to hold the seat at the by-election.

She had been a councillor in the London Borough of Merton from 1986 to 1994,[3] and had stood (and lost) in the safe Labour seat of North West Durham in 1992.

[4] Having lost two of the three previous by-elections of the Parliament to the Liberal Democrats, and failing to challenge Labour in the third, the Conservatives were not hopeful of gaining ground.

The Liberal Democrat candidate, Steve Churchman, had taken little more than a tenth of the votes cast in 1992, continuing a downward track since 1983.

The Liberal Democrats share of the votes declined slightly, but they still managed to push the Conservatives into third place, as they had a month before in Rotherham.