1951 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1951 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader Winston Churchill Clement Attlee Clement Davies Party Unionist Labour Liberal Last election 31 seats, 44.8% 37 seats, 46.2% 2 seats, 6.6% Seats won 35 [a] 35 1 Seat change 4 2 1 Popular vote 1,349,298 1,330,244 76,291 Percentage 48.6% 47.9% 2.7% Swing 3.8% 1.7% 3.9%
Results of the 1951 election in Scotland   Conservative/Unionist   Labour   Liberal   National Liberal

Main article: 1951 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 25 October 1951, and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested. ^{[1] [2]} The Unionists, together with their allies the National Liberals, ended up narrowly ahead of Labour in terms of vote share, however the two were equal in terms of seats won, each taking 35 seats. When combined with results from across the UK, the Conservatives (with whom the Unionists sat at Westminster) won a majority of 17 seats, despite winning slightly fewer votes than Labour. The election is noteworthy for being, as of 2024, the last election in which the Conservatives did better in Scotland than in England. It is also the most recent election where no party won a majority of Scottish seats.

The Liberals were reduced to one Scottish seat, Orkney and Shetland, losing their only other seat (Roxburgh and Selkirk) to the Unionists.

Results

Party			Seats [2]	Seats change	Votes [2]	%	% Change
	Conservative and Unionist (Total)		35	4	1,349,298	48.6	3.8
		Unionist	29	3	1,108,321	39.9	2.7
		National Liberal & Conservative	6	1 [b]	240,977	8.7	1.1
	Labour Party		35	2	1,330,244	47.9	1.7
	Liberal		1	1	76,291	2.7	3.9
	Communist		0		10,947	0.4	0.6
	SNP		0		7,299	0.3	0.1
	Other		0	1 [b]	3,758	0.1	0.9
Total			71		2,777,837	100.0
Turnout:						81.2 [3]	0.3

Votes summary

Popular vote ^[a]

Unionist			48.57%
Labour			47.89%
Liberal			2.75%
Other			0.79%

Parliamentary seats ^[a]

Unionist			49.30%
Labour			49.30%
Liberal			1.41%

Notes

1. The seat and vote count figures for the Unionists given here include the National Liberals.
2. John MacLeod had fought the 1950 election as an Independent Liberal, but switched to being an official "Liberal and Conservative" (taking the Conservative whip at Westminster) for the 1951 election. His seat, Ross and Cromarty is thus shown as National Liberal gain.

References

1. "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020.
2. Colin Rallings; Micheal Thrasher (2006). British Electoral Facts. Total Politics. p. 36. ISBN   978-1-907278-03-7.
3. Colin Rallings; Micheal Thrasher (2006). British Electoral Facts. Total Politics. p. 89. ISBN   978-1-907278-03-7.