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12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 625 seats in the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1951 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 25 October as part of the wider general election with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post.
The Ulster Unionists lost one seat to Jack Beattie, formerly an Independent Labour MP but now standing for the Irish Labour Party. Four Ulster Unionist candidates were returned unopposed, the last UK general election in which any candidates were so returned. [1] The Nationalists also lost one seat to retirement. It was gained by Michael O'Neill, an independent Nationalist. [2]
In the election as a whole, the Labour Party government led by Clement Attlee, which had won with a narrow majority in the previous election, lost out to the Conservative Party, which included the Ulster Unionists, led by Sir Winston Churchill, who returned as Prime Minister.
| Party | MPs | Change | Uncontested | Votes [4] | % [4] | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ulster Unionist | 9 |  1 | 4 | 274,928 | 59.4 | |
| Irish Labour Party | 1 |  1 | 0 | 33,174 | 7.2 | |
| Independent Nationalist | 1 | 1 | 0 | 33,094 | 7.1 | |
| Nationalist | 1 | 1 | 0 | 32,717 | 7.1 | |
| Northern Ireland Labour Party | 0 |  | 0 | 62,324 | 13.5 | |
| Independent Republican | 0 | | 0 | 26,976 | 5.8 | |
| Total | 12 | | 4 | 463,213 | 100 | |
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