The Labour Member of Parliament for Tottenham, Bernie Grant, died on April 8, 2000, creating a by-election in his constituency.

Grant was one of the first four black MPs and the constituency was one of the centres of the London Afro-Caribbean community. However, Grant's widow Sharon (who was white) declared her intention to seek selection and this split opinion within the local Labour Party. Both Sharon and Bernie Grant had been on the left-wing of the party whereas the leading black contender for the nomination, David Lammy, was a supporter of Tony Blair. After a close-fought selection battle, Lammy was chosen. During the campaign, Sharon Grant made a public show of supporting his election campaign in order not to allow disunity in the Labour Party.

Polling day in the by-election was set for June 22. Neither of the other major party candidates was able to mount a credible challenge in a seat where Labour was so strongly ahead, and David Lammy comfortably retained the seat on a low turnout.

Results

The turnout was 25.4%.

Candidate	Party	Votes	Share	Change
David Lammy	Labour	8,785	53.5%	-15.8%
Duncan Hames	Liberal Democrat	3,139	19.1%	+8.3%
Jane Ellison	Conservative	2,634	16.0%	+0.3%
Weyman Bennett	Socialist Alliance	885	5.4%
Peter Budge	Green Party	606	3.7%	+0.9%
Erol Basarik	Reform 2000 Party	177	1.1%
Ashwin Tanna	UK Independence Party	136	0.8%
Dorian de Braâm	Independent Conservative	55	0.3%

General Election result, 1997

Candidate	Party	Votes	Share
Bernie Grant	(Lab)	26,121	69.3%
Andrew Scantlebury	(C)	5,921	15.7%
Neil Hughes	(L Dem)	4,064	10.8%
Peter Budge	(GP)	1,059	2.8%
Leelan Tay	(PLA)	210	0.5%
Christopher Anglin	(WRP)	181	0.5%
Tania Kent	(SEP)	148	0.4%