1945 Motherwell by-election

The Motherwell by-election was held on 12 April 1945, following the death of Labour Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Motherwell James Walker.

1945 Motherwell by-election
12 April 1945
 
Candidate Robert McIntyre Alexander Anderson
Party SNP Labour
Popular vote 11,417 10,800
Percentage 51.4 48.6
Map showing the Motherwell Parliamentary constituency within Scotland.
MP before election

James Walker
Labour

 Subsequent MP

Robert McIntyre
SNP

Scotland
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
Scotland
 Scotland portal

The by-election took place during the Second World War during unusual political conditions. No general election had been held since 1935, at which James Walker narrowly gained the seat for Labour from the Unionist Party.

There was a truce between the major parties: Labour, the Conservative Party, Liberal Party and the National Liberal Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain, which had held Motherwell in the past, also undertook to abide by the truce. As a result, the only opposition in by-election came from independents, minor parties and occasional unofficial party candidates aligned with major parties.

For the by-election, the Labour Party stood Alexander Anderson. His only opposition came from the Scottish National Party (SNP), then a small party advocating Scottish independence, who stood Party Secretary Robert McIntyre.

Results

The election was won by McIntyre, who became the first SNP Member of Parliament. However, Anderson regained the seat from McIntyre at the 1945 general election a few months later.

Motherwell by-election, 1945 [1]
Party Candidate Votes % ±
SNP Robert McIntyre 11,417 51.4 N/A
Labour Alexander Anderson 10,800 48.6 -2.1
Majority 617 2.8 +1.5
Turnout 22,217 54.0 -21.9
SNP gain from Labour Swing N/A
gollark: That is probably it.
gollark: Go to the shell, type `lua`, press enter, type `turtle.digDown()`, press enter.
gollark: If you use the actual lua prompt it'll show you the return values.
gollark: What happens if you open `lua` and run `turtle.digDown()` in the prompt?
gollark: This is probably obvious but your turtle has a pickaxe equipped, right?

See also

References
  1. "Scots Nationalist Wins Motherwell By-Election". The Glasgow Herald. 14 April 1945. p. 2. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.