1948 Glasgow Hillhead by-election

A by-election for the constituency of Glasgow Hillhead in the House of Commons was held on 25 November 1948, caused by the appointment as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary of the incumbent Unionist MP James Reid. The result was a hold for the Unionist Party, with their candidate Tam Galbraith.

Result

Glasgow Hillhead[1]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	Tam Galbraith	16,060	68.4	+9.8
	Labour	T A MacNair	7,419	31.6	-2.0
Majority			8,641	36.8	+11.8

Despite a clear victory for their party some Scottish Unionist MPs were reportedly disappointed by the result given that the recent Edmonton by-election had seen the Conservative Party's vote substantially increased while Labour's vote fell greatly. Commenting on the by-election, an editorial in The Glasgow Herald rejected and criticised this assessment, noting that there was a lower turnout and opining that it was a "a notable achievement" that Galbraith had increased the Unionist Party's majority by a third, given that, in the newspaper's view, he was "a young candidate succeeding one of the outstanding Unionist members of recent years."[2]

Previous election

General election 1945: Glasgow Hillhead[3]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±
	Unionist	James Reid	14,909	58.6
	Labour	HT MacCalman	8,545	33.6
	Liberal	John Gray Wilson	2,003	7.8
Majority			6,364	25.0
Turnout				66.0
	Unionist hold		Swing

References

1. "1948 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
2. "Editorial - Hillhead". The Glasgow Herald. 27 November 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
3. "Politics Resources". Election 1945. Politics Resources. 5 July 1945. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 8 November 2011.

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd edition ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs