1935 Combined Scottish Universities by-election

1935 Combined Scottish Universities by-election

←  1934 17–22 June 1935 Nov. 1935  →
Constituency of Combined Scottish Universities
Turnout	48.1%
First party Second party   Lab Candidate John Graham Kerr Naomi Mitchison Party Unionist Labour Popular vote 20,507 4,293 Percentage 82.7% 17.3%
MP before election John Buchan Unionist Subsequent MP John Graham Kerr Unionist

The 1935 Combined Scottish Universities by-election was a by-election held from 17 to 22 June 1935 for the Combined Scottish Universities, a university constituency of the British House of Commons.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the sitting Unionist Member of Parliament (MP), John Buchan had resigned his seat when he was appointed as Governor General of Canada. He had held the seat since a by-election in April 1927.

Candidates

The Unionist candidate was 55-year-old John Graham Kerr, Regius Professor of Zoology at the University of Glasgow.^{[ citation needed ]} The Labour Party candidate was the novelist and poet Naomi Mitchison.^{[ citation needed ]} There was no Liberal Party candidate.

Neither Kerr nor Mitchison had previously contested a parliamentary election.^{[ citation needed ]}

Result

The result was a victory for the Unionist candidate, Prof. Kerr, who won over 80% of the votes. He resigned his university chair, held the seat until the university constituencies were abolished for the 1950 general election.^{[ citation needed ]}

Votes

Combined Scottish Universities by-election, 17-22 June 1935

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Graham Kerr	20,507	82.7	N/A
	Labour	Naomi Mitchison	4,293	17.3	−3.5
Majority			16,214	65.4	N/A
Turnout			24,800	48.1	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Previous election

General election, October 1931: Combined Scottish Universities

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John Buchan	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Liberal	Dugald Cowan	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Unionist	Noel Skelton	Unopposed	N/A	N/A

See also

• Combined Scottish Universities (UK Parliament constituency)
• 1927 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• 1934 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• 1936 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• 1938 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• 1945 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• 1946 Combined Scottish Universities by-election
• List of United Kingdom by-elections (1931–1950)

Sources

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