1933 Kilmarnock by-election

The Kilmarnock by-election, 1933 was a by-election held on 2 November 1933 for the British House of Commons constituency of Kilmarnock in Ayrshire.

Vacancy

The vacancy had arisen when Scotland's second most senior judge, the Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Alness, retired. It was a long-standing convention that when a vacancy arose in this office (or in the most senior judicial office, that of Lord President), the Lord Advocate (head of the Scottish criminal justice system) of the day would be appointed to fill the vacancy. The Lord Advocate in 1933 was Sir Craigie Mason Aitchison, K.C., M.P., and so he was appointed to the bench, automatically resigning his seat.

Aitchison had been elected as a member of the Labour Party in a 1929 by-election following the death of Robert Climie. In 1931, the Labour Government had split, with a handful of Labour MPs, including Aitchison, following Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald into a coalition National Government with the Conservatives. These MPs were expelled from the Labour Party and called themselves National Labour.

Candidates

The National Labour candidate was 37-year-old Kenneth Lindsay, who had contested the 1924 and 1929 elections as a Labour Party candidate in English constituencies.

The parties in the National Government did not contest by-elections when vacancies arose in seats held by other parties in the government, so the Unionist Party and the National Liberals did not field candidates.

The Labour Party candidate in Kilmarnock was Rev James Barr, hoping to regain the seat which Labour had won in 1929.

John Pollock stood for the Independent Labour Party, and Sir A. M. MacEwen represented both the National Party of Scotland and the Scottish Party[1] (the two parties united the following year to form the Scottish National Party).

Result

With the Labour vote split three ways, the result was a victory for Lindsay, who was elected with less than 35% of the vote, one of the smallest vote shares ever for a by-election winner.[2] He held the seat until the 1945 general election, when he was elected as an independent MP for the Combined English Universities.

Votes
Kilmarnock by-election, 2 November 1933 [1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
National Labour Kenneth Lindsay 12,577 34.8 −24.8
Labour James Barr 9,924 27.4 N/A
Ind. Labour Party John Pollock 7,575 20.9 −19.5
Scottish Party Alexander MacEwen 6,098 16.9 N/A
Majority 2,653 7.4 −11.8
Turnout 77.3 −2.2
National Labour hold Swing N/A
General election, October 1931: Kilmarnock
Party Candidate Votes % ±
National Labour Craigie Aitchison 21,803 59.6 N/A
Ind. Labour Party John Pollock 14,767 40.4 N/A
Majority 7,036 19.2 +3.6
Turnout 36,580 79.5 +7.8
National Labour hold Swing N/A
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See also

References
  1. "Kilmarnock By-election Result. National Government Success. Mr Lindsay's majority over Labour candidate. Scottish National Champion Last". The Glasgow Herald. 3 November 1933. p. 11. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
  2. United Kingdom by-election records
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