1983 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1983 United Kingdom general election

←  1979 9 June 1983 1987  →
←  outgoing members elected members  →
All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout	72.7%, 4.14%
First party Second party   Leader Michael Foot Margaret Thatcher Party Labour Conservative Leader since 10 November 1980 11 February 1975 Last election 44 seats, 41.5% 22 seats, 31.4% Seats won 41 21 Seat change 3 1 Popular vote 990,654 801,487 Percentage 35.1% 28.4% Swing 6.5% 3.0%   Third party Fourth party   Leader David Steel  (Lib.) David Owen  (SDP) Gordon Wilson Party Alliance SNP Leader since 7 July 1976 (Steel) 21 June 1983 (Owen) 15 September 1979 Last election 3 seats, 9.0% 2 seats, 17.3% Seats won 8 2 Seat change 5 Popular vote 692,634 331,975 Percentage 24.5% 11.8% Swing 15.5% 5.5%
Results of the 1983 election in Scotland

Main article: 1983 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 9 June 1983 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested. ^{[1] [2]} As a result of the Third Periodical Review undertaken by the Boundary Commission for Scotland the number of seats representing Scotland had increased by one from the 71 contested at the 1979 election. ^[3]

The Labour, Conservative and Scottish National parties all sustained modest losses in vote share to the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The Labour Party won 41 seats, with the Conservative Party winning 21, the Alliance winning eight and the Scottish National Party winning two. ^{[4] [5]} The Scottish Conservatives have been unable to match their 1983 Westminster seat total since, although they did record a slightly larger share of the Scottish vote in 2017.

When combined with results from across the United Kingdom, the election saw the Conservatives winning a landslide victory, improving on their 1979 result and achieving their best results since 1935. Although there was a slight drop in their share of the vote, they made significant gains at the expense of Labour. This was at odds with the Scottish result, as Labour remained by far the largest party in Scotland. ^[5]

Results

Party			Seats [2]	Seats change	Votes [2]	%	% change
	Labour Party		41	3	990,654	35.1	6.5
	Conservative Party		21	1	801,487	28.4	3.0
	SDP–Liberal Alliance		8	5	692,634	24.5	15.5
		Liberal	5	2	356,224	12.6	3.6
		Social Democratic Party	3	3	336,410	11.9	11.9
	Scottish National Party		2		331,975	11.8	5.5
	Ecology Party		0		3,854	0.1	0.1
	Communist		0		3,223	0.1	11.9
	Workers Revolutionary		0		262	0.0
	British National Party		0		103	0.0	New
	Other		0		388	0.0
Total			72	1	2,824,580	100
Turnout:						72.7

Popular vote Labour   35.07% Conservative   28.38% Alliance   24.52% SNP   11.75% Other   0.28%

Parliamentary seats Labour   56.94% Conservative   29.17% Alliance   11.11% SNP   2.78%

See also

• List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1983–1987)
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in England
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1983 United Kingdom general election in Wales

References

1. "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2020.
2. Colin Rallings; Micheal Thrasher (2006). British Electoral Facts. Total Politics. p. 49. ISBN   978-1-907278-03-7.
3. Third Periodical Report, Boundary Commission for Scotland, HMSO, 1983 ( ISBN   0-10-187940-7)
4. Macwhirter, Iain (2014). Road to Referendum: The Essential Guide to the Scottish Referendum. Cargo Publishing. ISBN   978-1-908885-95-1.
5. Letters (16 December 2021). "Scottish votes haven't influenced an English election result in 40 years". The National. Retrieved 2 January 2021. In 1983, Margaret Thatcher won 387 seats out of 650, a majority of 144. Labour secured 41 of the 72 seats in Scotland, the Tories 21, the SDP-Liberal Alliance 8 and the SNP 2. Obviously Scotland's 72 seats would not have influenced the outcome either way.