1992 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1992 United Kingdom general election
Flag of Scotland.svg
  1987 9 April 1992 1997  

All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout75.5%, Increase2.svg0.4%
 First partySecond party
  Official portrait of Neil Kinnock, Member of the EC (cropped).jpg Prime Minister John Major (cropped).jpg
Leader Neil Kinnock John Major
Party Labour Conservative
Leader since 2 October 1983 28 November 1990
Seats before5010
Seats won4911
Seat changeDecrease2.svg1Increase2.svg1
Popular vote1,142,911751,950
Percentage39.0%25.6%
SwingDecrease2.svg3.4%Increase2.svg1.6%

 Third partyFourth party
  ASHDOWN Paddy.jpg Alex Salmond, First Minister of Scotland (cropped).jpg
Leader Paddy Ashdown Alex Salmond
Party Liberal Democrats SNP
Leader since 16 July 1988 22 September 1990
Seats before93
Seats won93
Seat changeSteady2.svgSteady2.svg
Popular vote383,856629,564
Percentage13.1%21.5%
SwingDecrease2.svg6.1%Increase2.svg7.4%

United Kingdom General Election 1992 in Scotland.svg
Results of the 1992 election in Scotland

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on 9 April 1992 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested. Two Scottish seats changed parties during the election; Aberdeen South and Kincardine and Deeside. Both seats were gained by the Conservatives. Kincardine and Deeside had been lost by the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats in the last by-election of the parliament. [1]

Contents

The results of the 1992 election were largely unexpected, and nowhere more-so than in Scotland. Conservative results in Scottish local elections since the 1987 election had been largely poor, and the Conservatives had sunk as low as 15% in a March 1990 opinion poll by the Herald. Polling throughout the campaign had suggested little movement towards the Conservatives, and instead support for Scottish independence appeared to be rising. Local polls in individual constituencies had even suggested that the Secretary of State for Scotland Ian Lang would lose his seat of Galloway and Upper Nithsdale to the SNP and that Under-Secretary of State for Scotland Michael Forsyth would lose Stirling to Labour. [1]

Most surprising was the difference between the Scottish results and the wider UK results. The tendency had historically been for larger swings to Labour in Scotland where there was a national swing to Labour. In 1992 the wider swing in the UK was from the Conservatives to Labour, yet Scotland saw a swing from Labour to the Conservatives. [1] This was the last election until 2017 in which the Conservatives were the second largest party in Scotland (in the election held 25 years later, the Scottish Conservatives were the beneficiaries of a much larger swing against the trend elsewhere in the UK).

MPs

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1992–1997)

Results

PartySeatsSeats
change
Votes % %
change
Labour 49Decrease2.svg 11,142,91139.0Decrease2.svg 3.4
Conservative 11Increase2.svg 1751,95025.6Increase2.svg 1.6
Liberal Democrats 9Steady2.svg383,85613.1Decrease2.svg 6.1
SNP 3Steady2.svg629,56421.5Increase2.svg 7.4
Other0Steady2.svg23,4170.8Increase2.svg 0.5
Turnout2,931,698 75.5Increase2.svg 0.4

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
39.00%
Conservative
25.60%
SNP
21.50%
Liberal Democrats
13.10%
Other
0.80%
Parliament seats
Labour
68.06%
Conservative
15.27%
Liberal Democrats
12.50%
SNP
4.16%

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Bochel, John; Denver, David (1 November 1992). "The 1992 general election in Scotland". Scottish Affairs. 1 (First Series) (1): 14–26. doi:10.3366/scot.1992.0005. hdl: 1842/9159 via Edinburgh University Press Journals.