The 1961 Bristol South East by-election was a by-election held on 4 May 1961 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol.
The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Tony Benn, had inherited a hereditary peerage from his father and became Viscount Stansgate, thus making him automatically ineligible to serve in the House of Commons. He had been elected at a by-election in 1950.
Benn stood in the by-election anyway—claiming that he had not asked for and would not ask for a writ of summons to the House of Lords—and won the majority of votes, but he was forbidden by Parliamentary authorities to physically return to the Commons due to his ineligibility. The Conservative Party candidate Malcolm St Clair—who was himself the heir to a peerage—filed a petition against the result, and was declared the winner after a court challenge.
When the law was later changed by the Peerage Act 1963 to allow Benn to renounce his peerage, Benn immediately did so and, fulfilling a promise to the electors of Bristol South East, St Clair resigned his seat. Benn was returned to the House of Commons at the 1963 Bristol South East by-election, which was not contested by the Conservatives.
Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | Viscount Stansgate (Tony Benn) (disqualified) | 23,275 | 69.5 | +13.3 | |
Conservative | Malcolm St Clair | 10,231 | 30.5 | −13.3 | |
Majority | −13,044 | −39.0 | N/A | ||
Turnout | 33,506 | 56.7 | −24.7 | ||
Conservative gain from Labour | Swing | −13.3 |
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Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election is a 1961 United Kingdom election court case brought about by an election petition by Malcolm St Clair against Anthony Wedgewood Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate, the winner of the 1961 Bristol South-East by-election where Benn had won the most votes but was disqualified from taking his seat in the House of Commons as he had inherited a hereditary peerage as 2nd Viscount Stansgate. Benn argued that as he had not applied for a writ of summons, he was not a member of the House of Lords and that the voters had the right to choose who they wanted to represent them.