The 1955 by-election held in Mid Ulster on 11 August 1955 was called as a result of a vote in the British parliament on 18 July 1955 which voted 197 votes to 63 to nullify the result of the previous 1955 UK General Election in the constituency. Mitchell won again but lost the seat to Charles Beattie after an election petition, with Beattie also being disqualified shortly after for holding an office of profit. This led to the 1956 Mid Ulster by-election. [1]
At the 1955 United Kingdom general election, Tom Mitchell won the Mid Ulster constituency. In July 1955, the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland moved a motion in the House of Commons to nullify Mitchell's election on the grounds that he was a convicted felon and had been sentenced to a 10 year prison sentence. Accordingly, this made Mitchell ineligible to be a Member of Parliament (MP) under the Forfeiture Act 1870. [2] The House voted 197 to 63 in favour to nullify the election and declare the Mid Ulster seat vacant. [2]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sinn Féin | Tom Mitchell | 30,392 | 50.7 | +0.5 | |
| UUP | Charles Beattie | 29,586 | 49.3 | −0.5 | |
| Margin of victory | 806 | 1.4 | +1.0 | ||
| Turnout | 66,852 | 89.7 | +1.1 | ||
| Registered electors | 66,847 | ||||
| Void election result | Swing | N/A | |||
In the by-election, Mitchell managed to retain the seat with an increase in the number of votes. In the aftermath of the election, the defeated Unionist candidate successfully lodged a petition to have Mitchell, a convicted felon, removed as MP again. The seat was subsequently given to Charles Beattie with the votes for Mitchell being treated as been "thrown away". [4] However, it later emerged that at the time of the election, Beattie was a member of an appeals tribunal, considered an "office of profit under the Crown", the House of Commons voted without a division in favour of the Attorney-General's motion that this disqualified him from the office of MP and vacated the seat. [5] As a result, another by-election was called in 1956. [1]