Vivian Bendall

Vivian Walter Hough Bendall (born 14 December 1938) is a British Conservative politician and estate agent. After gaining Ilford North at the 1978 by-election he served as the constituency's Member of Parliament until his defeat in 1997. Bendall is on the right-wing of the party.

Born in Croydon, Bendall's father and grandfather were both estate agents. After attending Coombe Hill House Preparatory School and Broad Green College in Croydon, he entered the same profession himself in 1956. In 1962 he became a partner of Bendall, Featherby and Co., estate agents of Croydon, and in the next year he became Principal. He remained in charge of the business until 1986. He also worked as a surveyor and valuer.

After joining the Young Conservatives in 1955, Bendall was Vice-Chairman of Croydon South Young Conservatives in 1965 and Chairman of Greater London Young Conservatives in 1967. He was elected to Croydon Borough Council when it was created as a London Borough in 1964, serving until 1974, and also represented Croydon on the Greater London Council from 1970 to 1973. At the February 1974 general election, he stood for the Conservative Party in Hertford and Stevenage, losing to Labour's Shirley Williams by 8,176 votes; a second try in October 1974 saw defeat by 9,046.

On 25 November 1975, Bendall was adopted as Conservative candidate for Ilford North, which the Conservatives had narrowly lost to Labour's Millie Miller. At the 1976 Conservative Party conference, he denounced the ruling Labour government as having "strangled the nation" and demanded an immediate general election. At the end of October 1977, Millie Miller died, precipitating a by-election in the seat for which Bendall had been selected. A rival candidate was Tom Iremonger, who had been Conservative MP for the seat for twenty years up to the October 1974 election and stood as a Conservative Independent Democrat. The National Front organised a march through the constituency to support their candidate. Bendall's call for the march to be banned was not supported by Margaret Thatcher who considered it a decision for the police.

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