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1959 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1959 United Kingdom general election
← 1955 8 October 1959 1964 →
All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Hugh Gaitskell Harold Macmillan Jo Grimond
Party Labour Unionist Liberal
Last election 34, 46.7% 36 seats, 50.1% 1 seats, 1.9%
Seats won 38 31[a] 1
Seat change Increase4 Decrease5 Steady
Popular vote 1,245,255 1,260,287 108,963
Percentage 46.7 47.3 4.1%
Swing Steady Decrease2.8% Increase2.1%
  Fourth party
 
Leader David Robertson
Party Ind. Unionist
Last election N/A
Seats won 1
Seat change Increase1
Popular vote 12,163
Percentage 0.5%
Swing N/A
Results of the 1959 election in Scotland
  Conservative/Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal
  National Liberal
  Independent Unionist
Main article: 1959 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 8 October 1959 and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested.[1] The Unionists, who aligned with the Conservative and Unionist Party at a UK level, together with their allies the National Liberals, won the largest number of votes, but lost out in seats to the Labour Party. Across the UK as a whole, the Conservatives won 365 seats, and returned as government with a majority of 100 seats.

Jo Grimond, now party leader for the Liberals, was returned as his party's only MP, representing Orkney and Shetland. The election also saw David Robertson returned as in "Independent Unionist" for Caithness and Sutherland. Robertson was the sitting MP for the seat, having resigned from taking the Conservative whip at Westminster in January of 1959.[2] Robertson was not opposed by an official Unionist candidate.[3]

MPs

[edit]

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1959–1964)

Results

[edit]
Party Seats Seats change Votes % % Change
  Labour Party 38 Increase 4 1,245,255 46.7 Steady 0.0
  Conservative and Unionist (Total) 31 Decrease5 1,260,287 47.3 Decrease2.8
  Unionist 25 Decrease 5 1,060,609 39.8 Decrease 1.7
  National Liberal & Conservative 6 Steady 199,678 7.5 Decrease 1.1
  Liberal 1 Steady 108,963 4.1 Increase 2.1
  Independent Unionist 1 Increase 1 12,163 0.5 New
  SNP 0 Steady 21,738 0.8 Increase 0.3
  Communist 0 Steady 12,150 0.5 New
  Fife Socialist League 0 Steady 4,886 0.2 New
  Other 0 Steady 2,071 0.1 Decrease 0.2
Total 71 2,667,513 100


Votes summary

[edit]
Popular vote[a]
Unionist
 
 47.3%
Labour
 
 46.7%
Liberal
 
 4.1%
Other
 
 1.9%
Parliamentary seats[a]
Labour
 
 38 seats
Unionist
 
 31 seats
Liberal
 
 1 seat
Independent Unionist
 
 1 seat

Notes

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  1. ^ a b c The seat and vote count figures for the Unionists given here include the National Liberals

References

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  1. ^ "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020.
  2. ^ "Sir D. Robertson Resigns Whip", The Times, 31 January 1959.
  3. ^ "Conservatives Not Likely To Oppose Sir D. Robertson", The Times, 10 September 1959.
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