1923 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1923 United Kingdom general election

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All 74 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ramsay MacDonald H. H. Asquith Stanley Baldwin Party Labour Liberal Unionist Last election 29 [a] 28 [a] [b] 15 [a] Seats won 34 [a] 23 [a] [b] 16 [a] Seat change 5 5 [a] [b] 1 Popular vote 532,450 [c] 422,995 [c] 468,526 [c] Percentage 35.9% [c] 28.4% [c] 31.6% [c] Swing 3.7% [c] 10.8% [c] 6.5% [c]
Results of the 1923 election in Scotland for the county and burgh seats   Unionist   Labour   Liberal

Main article: 1923 United Kingdom general election

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.

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 coalition, 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 aligned 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

Party		Seats	Last Election	Seats change
	Labour	34	29	5
	Liberal	23	28 [b]	5 [b]
	Unionist	16	15	1
	Scottish Prohibition Party	1	1
	Communist	0	1	1
Total		74	74

Burgh & County constituencies

Party		Seats [4]	Seats change	Votes [4]	%	% Change
	Labour	34	5	532,450	35.9	3.7
	Liberal (Reunited)	22	5	422,995	28.4	10.8
	Unionist	14	1	468,526	31.6	6.5
	Communist	0	1	39,448	2.4	1.0
	Other	1	-	37,908	1.7	0.4
Total		71		1,501,327	100

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

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	George Andreas Berry	Unopposed
	Liberal	Dugald Cowan	Unopposed
	Unionist	Henry Craik	Unopposed

Votes summary

Popular vote [c] Labour   35.9% Unionist   31.6% Liberal   28.4% Other   4.1%

Parliamentary seats [a] Labour   45.95% Liberal   31.08% Unionist   21.62% Scottish Prohibition   1.35%

Notes

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

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.
4. Colin Rallings; Micheal Thrasher (2006). British Electoral Facts. Total Politics. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-907278-03-7.