1929 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

Main article: 1929 United Kingdom general election

1929 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 Stanley Baldwin David Lloyd George Party Labour Unionist Liberal Leader since 22 November 1922 23 October 1922 14 October 1926 Seats before 26 seats [a] 38 [a] 9 [a] Seats won 37 [a] 22 [a] 14 [a] Seat change 11 [a] 16 [a] 5 [a] Popular vote 931,432 [b] 776,397 [b] 390,896 [b] Percentage 43.1% [b] 35.9% [b] 18.1% [b] Swing 2.0% [b] 4.8% [b] 1.5% [b]
Results of the 1929 election in Scotland   Unionist   Labour   Liberal

The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 30 May 1929, and all 74 seats in Scotland were contested and resulted in a hung parliament. It stands as the fourth of six instances under the secret ballot, and the first of three under universal suffrage, in which a party has lost on the popular vote but won the highest number (known as "a plurality") of seats versus all other parties – others are 1874, January 1910, December 1910, 1951 and February 1974. In 1929, Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons for the first time. The Liberal Party once again led by ex-Prime Minister David Lloyd George regained some ground lost at the 1924 general election and held the balance of power. The election results in Scotland saw a dramatic swing towards the labour Party led by Scottish leader Ramsay MacDonald (although at the time he represented a seat in London). These results followed a general swing towards Labour at this election. ^[1]

The general election was the first in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote (owing to the Representation of the People Act 1928). Women over 30, with some property qualifications, had been able to vote since the 1918 general election, but the 1929 poll was the first general election with universal suffrage for adults over 21, which was then the age of majority.

Scotland was allocated 74 seats in the House of Commons, with 71 territorial seats (32 burgh constituencies and 38 county constituencies). ^[c] There was also one university constituency, which elected an additional 3 members using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method. ^[2] As voters in university constituencies voted under a different system, and in addition to their territorial vote, the results are compiled separately.

Results

Seats summary ^[3]

Main article: 1929 United Kingdom general election

Party			Seats	Last Election	Seats change
	Labour Party		37	26	11
	Unionist		22	38	16
	Liberal		14	9	5
	Scottish Prohibition		1	1
Total			74	74

Burgh & County constituencies

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% Change
	Labour	37	11	931,432	43.1	2.0
	Unionist	20	16	776,397	35.9	4.8
	Liberal	13	5	390,896	18.1	1.5
	Scottish Prohibition	1	-	25,037	1.2
	Communist	0	-	24,868	1.1	0.4
	National Party of Scotland	0	-	3,313	0.2	New
	Other	0	0	8,613	0.4
Total		71		2,161,350	100

University constituency

The Combined Scottish Universities elected an additional 3 members to the house using the STV voting method.

General election 1929: Combined Scottish Universities (3 seats) ^[4]

Party		Candidate	FPv%	Count
				1	2
	Unionist	John Buchan	39.7	9,959
	Liberal	Dugald Cowan	26.7	6,698
	Unionist	George Berry	22.9	5,755	9,262
	Labour	James Kerr (Scottish doctor)	10.7	2,691	2,867
Electorate: 43,192  Valid: 25,103  Quota: 6,276  Turnout: 25,103

Votes summary

Popular vote [b] Labour   43.1% Unionist   35.9% Liberal   18.1% Communist   1.1% Scottish Prohibition   1.2% NPS   0.2% Other   0.4%

Parliament seats [a] Labour   37 seats Unionist   22 seats Liberal   14 seats Scottish Prohibition   1 seat

Notes

1. Combined results for burgh, county and university seats
2. Total and percentage votes given here are for territorial constituencies only
3. One burgh seat, Dundee, was represented by two members of parliament.

References

1. William Kenefick (2007). Red Scotland!: The Rise and Fall of the Radical Left, C. 1872–1932. Edinburgh University Press. pp. 202–203. ISBN   978-0-7486-2517-8.
2. "Research Briefing: Voting systems in the UK". Library of the House of Commons. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
3. "Research Briefing: General election results from 1918 to 2019". Library of the House of Commons. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 20 May 2025.
4. The Times, 11 June 1929