1923 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1923 United Kingdom general election
Flag of Scotland.svg
  1922 6 December 1923 1924  

All 74 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
 First partySecond partyThird party
  Ramsay MacDonald ggbain 35734.jpg Herbert Henry Asquith.jpg Stanley Baldwin ggbain.35233.jpg
Leader Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith Stanley Baldwin
Party Labour Liberal Unionist
Last election29 [a] 28 [a] [b] 15 [a]
Seats won34 [a] 23 [a] [b] 16 [a]
Seat changeIncrease2.svg5Decrease2.svg5 [a] [b] Increase2.svg1
Popular vote532,450 [c] 422,995 [c] 468,526 [c]
Percentage35.9 [c] 28.4 [c] 31.6 [c]
SwingIncrease2.svg3.7% [c] Decrease2.svg10.8% [c] Increase2.svg6.5% [c]

United Kingdom general election 1923 in Scotland.svg
Results of the 1923 election in Scotland for the county and burgh seats
  Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 6 December 1923, [1] and MPs were elected to represent all 74 seats in Scotland. [2] Scotland was allocated 71 territorial seats (32 burgh constituencies and 38 county constituencies) [d] which voted using the first past the post voting method, and one university constituency, which elected an additional 3 members using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method. [3] As voters in university constituencies voted under a different system, and in addition to their territorial vote, the results are compiled separately.

Contents

The election saw the Labour Party make further gains following their success in the previous election in 1922, winning 34 seats in total. The Liberals, who had reunited following the split caused by the continuation of the Wartime coaltion, came in second on 23 seats, down five from the previous combined total for their two former factions. The Unionists gained a seat, finishing third on 16 seats. Although Labour won a plurality of seats in Scotland, when combined with results from across the UK, the Conservatives (with whom the Unionists alligned at Westminster) led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won a plurality in the House of Commons. The conservatives were however, well short of majority, with both Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. H. Asquith's reunited Liberal Party gaining enough seats to produce a hung parliament. MacDonald formed the first Labour government with tacit support from the Liberals. Rather than trying to bring the Liberals back into government, Asquith's motivation for permitting Labour to enter power was that he hoped they would prove to be incompetent and quickly lose support. Being a minority, MacDonald's government only lasted ten months and another general election was held in October 1924.

The Communist Party lost their only Scottish seat in Motherwell. The Scottish Prohibition Party retained their only seat in Dundee.

Results

Seats summary

PartySeatsLast ElectionSeats change
Labour 3429Increase2.svg5
Liberal 2328 [b] Decrease2.svg 5 [b]
Unionist 1615Increase2.svg 1
Scottish Prohibition Party 11Steady2.svg
Communist 01Decrease2.svg 1
Total7474

Burgh & County constituencies

PartySeatsSeats changeVotes % % Change
Labour 34Increase2.svg5532,45035.9Increase2.svg3.7
Liberal (Reunited)22Decrease2.svg 5422,99528.4Decrease2.svg 10.8
Unionist 14Increase2.svg 1468,52631.6Increase2.svg 6.5
Communist 0Decrease2.svg 139,4482.4Increase2.svg 1.0
Other1-37,9081.7Decrease2.svg 0.4
Total711,501,327100

University constituency

The Combined Scottish Universities elected an additional 3 members to the house using the STV voting method. Note that there was no election as only three candidates stood for election.

General election 1923: Combined Scottish Universities
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist George Andreas Berry Unopposed N/AN/A
Liberal Dugald Cowan Unopposed N/AN/A
Unionist Henry Craik Unopposed N/AN/A

Votes summary

Popular vote [c]
Labour
35.9%
Unionist
31.6%
Liberal
28.4%
Other
4.1%
Parliamentary seats [a]
Labour
34 seats
Liberal
23 seats
Unionist
16 seats
Scottish Prohibition Party
1 seats

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Combined results for burgh, county and university seats
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Liberal total and change in compared to the combined Liberal and National Liberal total in 1922
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total and percentage votes given here are for territorial constituencies only
  4. One burgh seat, Dundee, was represented by two members of parliament.

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References

  1. Morgan, William Thomas (1924). "The British Elections of December, 1923" . American Political Science Review. 18 (2): 331–340. doi:10.2307/1943928. ISSN   0003-0554. JSTOR   1943928.
  2. As per Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972 ( ISBN   0-900178-09-4), F. W. S. Craig 1972, except Graig omits indication that the burgh of Renfrew was not entirely within the county of the same name
  3. "Research Briefing: Voting systems in the UK". Library of the House of Commons. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2024.