1950 Belfast West by-election

Last updated

There was a by-election for Belfast West constituency on 29 November 1950. It occurred after the winner at the 1950 United Kingdom general election, James Godfrey MacManaway, was disqualified as he was a priest. [1] It was won by Thomas Teevan representing the Unionists. [2]

Contents

Background

MacManaway won the Belfast West seat at the 1950 general election. He had been ordained as an Anglican priest in the Church of Ireland by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1925 but later left the priesthood. [3]

Shortly after his election, the House of Commons referred the election to a select committee to determine if his election was valid as the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act 1801 formally banned any Church of England clergyman (which the Church of Ireland was united with as the state church of the United Kingdom at the time, before disestablishment under the Irish Church Act 1869) from being an MP. [3] Due to the committee finding the law ambiguous, the Home Secretary referred the matter to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Privy Council ruled that because MacManaway had received episcopal ordination by a church that was the established church at the time of the act's passage, he was legally a priest under the 1801 act and was thus disqualified from being an MP. [3]

Under the law, MacManaway was liable for a £500 fine for each of the five times that he voted in the Commons while his case was being decided. The government announced that they would bring in legislation to indemnify MacManaway so he would not have to pay any fines. [4] This was done through the passage of the Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951. [5]

Result

Thomas Teevan, the Unionist candidate, narrowly beat Jack Beattie, a former MP for the constituency who was the candidate of the Irish Labour Party, by 913 votes. However Beattie beat Teevan at the 1951 general election. [2]

Belfast West by-election, 1950 [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
UUP Thomas Teevan 31,796 50.8 –0.7
Irish Labour Jack Beattie 30,83349.2+2.9
Majority9131.6–3.8
Turnout 62,62979.8−3.8
Registered electors 78,459
UUP hold Swing

References

  1. ↑ "Page 6129". The Gazette. 8 December 1950. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  2. 1 2 McAllister, Ian (1982). United Kingdom Facts. Palgrave MacMillan UK. p. 85. ISBN   9781349042043.
  3. 1 2 3 "The House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Bill" (PDF). House of Commons Library. 26 January 2001. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  4. ↑ "Foreign News: £500 a Day". TIME. 30 October 1950. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  5. ↑ "Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951" (PDF). Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 28 April 2025.
  6. ↑ "1950 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.