2008 Haltemprice and Howden by-election

A by-election for the United Kingdom parliamentary constituency of Haltemprice and Howden was held on 10 July 2008, triggered by the surprise and controversial resignation of incumbent Conservative Party MP David Davis in order to re-contest the seat. Davis comfortably held his seat with a 15,355-vote majority. Due to the unusual circumstances, the by-election broke several records, including the most candidates running in a UK parliamentary by-election – 26, the largest number of independents, and the largest number of candidates losing their deposits.

Davis' stated intention was to spark a wider public debate on the perceived erosion of civil liberties in the UK on the single-issue platform of the perceived erosion of civil liberties in the UK, launched as the David Davis for Freedom campaign. The two other major political parties, Labour and the Liberal Democrats, both declined to field candidates; the Liberal Democrats as they supported Davis in this issue and Labour as they considered the by-election to be a "political stunt".

Davis was subsequently re-elected to his seat as a Conservative with 72% of the vote. He received 17,113 votes, with the closest challenge coming from the Green Party and English Democrats with 1,758 and 1,714 votes respectively. All other candidates lost their deposit due to polling less than 5% of the vote. This was, at the time, the best by-election results for both the Green Party and the English Democrats.

While single-issue by-elections such as this one were not unprecedented, they were rare in modern political times. Under election law, other candidates were free to stand on their chosen manifesto and not necessarily obliged to oppose or support Davis. Davis's use of a by-election in this way attracted both praise and criticism from politicians, the public and the media, with The Sun newspaper initially considering fielding a candidate to oppose Davis in support of anti-terrorism legislation. The Labour Party's non-participation stance attracted criticism as appearing to be afraid to debate, following recent poor local election results and record low opinion poll results; while Davis attracted criticism as being vain, wasting public money, as well as for contesting the issue in his Conservative safe seat.