Glasgow Cathcart (UK Parliament constituency)

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Glasgow Cathcart
Former burgh constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland Glasgow City
1918–2005
SeatsOne
Created from Mid Lanarkshire
Replaced by Glasgow South

Glasgow Cathcart was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 2005, when it was replaced by the larger Glasgow South constituency.

Contents

It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) using the first-past-the-post voting system.

Boundaries

1950–1974: The County of the City of Glasgow wards of Cathcart and Langside, and part of Govanhill ward.

1974–1983: The County of the City of Glasgow ward of Cathcart, and part of Langside ward.

1983–1997: The City of Glasgow District electoral divisions of King's Park/Aitkenhead, Linn Park/Castlemilk, and Pollokshaws/Newlands.

1997–2005: The City of Glasgow District electoral divisions of Battlefield/Croftfoot, Carnwadric/Newlands, and Castlemilk/Carmunnock.

History

For generations, Glasgow Cathcart was an extremely safe Conservative seat and for fifty-six years, the constituency always returned a Conservative MP. The area was the wealthiest part of the city and was mainly inhabited by "well to do" business families and contained large detached houses. It was Glasgow's equivalent of Kensington and Chelsea in London. However, when Labour won the general election in 1964, Glasgow had a lot of slum clearance and a lot of council housing was built in the Cathcart area, and areas which had previously been fields now housed the families from the old slums. These families naturally voted Labour and time and time, again the Conservative majorities dwindled. In 1966, the Conservative majority fell to a record low of 1,200 votes.

In 1970, the Conservatives increased their majority to around 5,000 but at the next two general elections in 1974 it soon fell again. In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher took office, the Conservatives lost the seat to Labour, against the national trend where there was a large swing to the Conservatives. After redrawn boundaries were made in 1983, the seat was notionally Conservative but like 1979 the seat went against the national trend and the Labour MP increased his majority. From 1983 to 1997, the Conservatives lost more ground time after time except for a small improvement in 1992 (inline with the national trend in Scotland, which ran counter to that across the United Kingdom). In 1997, Labour won a landslide victory in which the Conservatives lost all their seats in Scotland, and the seat became a safe Labour seat.

Since then, the Conservatives had fallen into third and fourth place. The seat still has more Conservative voters than any other Glasgow constituency, but only 5,000 at the last election when it was replaced by Glasgow South.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember [1] Party
1918 John Pratt Coalition Liberal
1922 John Primrose Hay Labour
1923 Robert MacDonald Unionist
1929 Sir John Train Unionist
1942 by-election Francis Beattie Unionist
1946 by-election John Henderson Unionist
1964 Teddy Taylor Unionist
Conservative
1979 John Maxton Labour
2001 Thomas Harris Labour

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Glasgow Cathcart [2]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
C Liberal John Pratt 16,31076.9
Labour Gavin Brown Clark 4,89923.1
Majority 11,41153.8
Turnout 21,20961.8
Registered electors 34,293
Liberal win (new seat)
Cindicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Glasgow Cathcart [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Primrose Hay 9,137 34.0 +10.9
National Liberal Andrew Rae Duncan 9,10433.8−43.1
Unionist Robert MacDonald 8,66132.2New
Majority 330.2N/A
Turnout 26,90281.0+19.2
Registered electors 33,198
Labour gain from Liberal Swing +27.0
General election 1923: Glasgow Cathcart [4]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Robert MacDonald 10,817 42.3 +10.1
Labour John Primrose Hay 8,88434.7+0.7
Liberal Thomas Graham Robertson 5,89423.0−10.8
Majority 1,9337.6N/A
Turnout 25,59577.5−3.5
Registered electors 33,040
Unionist gain from Labour Swing +4.7
General election 1924: Glasgow Cathcart [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Robert MacDonald 18,440 65.0 +22.7
Labour John Primrose Hay 9,91535.0+0.3
Majority 8,52530.0+22.4
Turnout 28,35580.8+3.3
Registered electors 35,076
Unionist hold Swing +11.2
General election 1929: Glasgow Cathcart [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Train 15,435 43.1 −21.9
Labour John Primrose Hay 12,98336.3+1.3
Liberal James Gray7,38820.6New
Majority 2,4526.8−23.2
Turnout 35,80678.6−2.2
Registered electors 45,545
Unionist hold Swing −11.6

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Glasgow Cathcart [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Train 26,642 73.8 +30.7
Labour A. L. Ritchie8,91924.7−11.6
New Party J. Mellick5291.5New
Majority 17,72349.1+42.3
Turnout 36,09079.5+0.9
Unionist hold Swing
General election 1935: Glasgow Cathcart [8]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Train 21,331 62.1 −11.7
Labour Alasdair Alpin MacGregor 12,99537.9+13.2
Majority 8,33624.2−24.9
Turnout 34,32674.3−5.2
Unionist hold Swing −12.5

Elections in the 1940s

By-election 1942: Glasgow Cathcart [9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Francis Beattie 10,786 59.6 −2.5
Independent Progressive William Douglas Home 3,80721.0New
Ind. Labour Party James Carmichael 2,49313.8N/A
SNP William Whyte1,0005.5New
Majority 6,97938.6+14.4
Turnout 18,086
Unionist hold Swing
General election 1945: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Francis Beattie 18,472 58.8 −3.3
Labour N. Jackson12,92341.2+3.3
Majority 5,54917.6−6.6
Turnout 31,39567.7−6.6
Unionist hold Swing −3.3
By-election 1946: Glasgow Cathcart [10]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Henderson 13,695 52.5 −6.3
Labour Alexander Burns Mackay 9,68937.2−4.0
SNP William Taylor 2,70010.4New
Majority 4,00615.3−2.3
Turnout 26,084
Unionist hold Swing −1.2

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Henderson 24,341 64.8 +6.0
Labour Ian Rosslyn Mitchell10,26927.3−13.9
Liberal Malcolm I Shields2,9847.9New
Majority 14,07237.5+19.9
Turnout 37,59483.8+16.1
Unionist hold Swing +10.0
General election 1951: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Henderson 26,125 70.5 +5.7
Labour Agnes M. Patrick10,91229.5+2.2
Majority 15,21341.0+3.5
Turnout 37,03782.5−1.3
Unionist hold Swing +1.8
General election 1955: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Henderson 25,265 72.6 +2.1
Labour L.P. Thomas9,51427.4−2.1
Majority 15,75145.2+4.2
Turnout 34,77975.7−6.8
Unionist hold Swing +2.1
General election 1959: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist John Henderson 30,743 59.2 −13.4
Labour James Jarvie21,16940.8+13.4
Majority 9,57418.4−26.8
Turnout 51,91280.3+4.6
Unionist hold Swing −13.4

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Unionist Teddy Taylor 27,299 52.9 −6.3
Labour Ellen McCulloch24,29447.1+6.3
Majority 3,0055.8−12.6
Turnout 51,59379.3−1.0
Unionist hold Swing −6.3
General election 1966: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Teddy Taylor 26,549 50.7 −2.2
Labour Frederick L Forrester25,33048.4+1.3
Anti-VivisectionGabriel A Barlow5161.0New
Majority 1,2192.3−3.5
Turnout 52,39579.7+0.4
Conservative hold Swing −1.8

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Teddy Taylor 29,093 54.2 +3.5
Labour Donald C.H. Mackay24,18845.0−3.4
Independent Joseph McDonagh4190.8New
Majority 4,9059.2+6.9
Turnout 53,70074.4−5.3
Conservative hold Swing +3.5
General election February 1974: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Teddy Taylor 18,247 45.8 −8.4
Labour P.T. McCann16,15240.6−4.4
SNP Alex Ewing5,41013.6New
Majority 2,0955.2−4.0
Turnout 39,80980.7+6.3
Conservative hold Swing −2.0
General election October 1974: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Conservative Teddy Taylor 16,301 42.7 −3.1
Labour J.E. Carnegie14,54438.1−2.5
SNP Alex Ewing6,29216.5+2.9
Liberal Henry Wills1,0582.8New
Majority 1,7574.6−0.6
Turnout 38,19576.7−4.0
Conservative hold Swing −0.3
General election 1979: Glasgow Cathcart
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Maxton 17,550 45.9 +7.8
Conservative Teddy Taylor 15,95041.8−0.9
SNP Alex Ewing2,6536.9−9.6
Liberal Henry Wills2,0425.4+2.6
Majority 1,6004.1N/A
Turnout 38,10578.6+1.9
Labour gain from Conservative Swing +4.4

Elections in the 1980s

General election 1983: Glasgow Cathcart [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Maxton 16,037 41.4 −0.7
Conservative Douglas J. May11,80730.5−15.8
SDP Keir Bloomer8,71022.5+16.8
SNP William Steven2,1515.6−1.3
Majority 4,23010.9+6.7
Turnout 38,70575.8−2.8
Labour hold Swing +7.5
General election 1987: Glasgow Cathcart [12]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Maxton 19,623 52.1 +10.7
Conservative William Harvey8,42022.4−8.1
SDP Moira Craig5,72215.2−7.3
SNP William Steven3,88310.3+4.7
Majority 11,20329.7+18.8
Turnout 37,64876.4+0.6
Labour hold Swing +9.4

Elections in the 1990s

General election 1992: Glasgow Cathcart [13]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Maxton 16,265 48.3 −3.8
Conservative John Young 8,26424.5+2.1
SNP William Steven6,10718.1+7.8
Liberal Democrats George C. Dick2,6147.8−7.4
Green Kay M. Allan4411.3New
Majority 8,00123.8−5.9
Turnout 33,69175.2−1.2
Labour hold Swing -3.0

The boundaries of the seat were significantly re-drawn between 1992 and 1997.

General election 1997: Glasgow Cathcart [14]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Maxton 19,158 57.4
SNP Maire Whitehead6,91318.5
Conservative Alistair J. Muir4,24812.4
Liberal Democrats Callan Dick2,3026.9
ProLife Alliance Zofia Indyk6872.0
Scottish Socialist James Stevenson4581.3
Referendum Strang Haldane3441.0
Majority 12,96538.9
Turnout 33,39067.6
Labour win (new seat)

Elections in the 2000s

General election 2001: Glasgow Cathcart [15]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tom Harris 14,902 54.4 −3.0
SNP Josephine U. Docherty4,08614.9−3.6
Conservative Richard Cook3,66213.4+1.0
Liberal Democrats Tom Henery3,00611.0+4.1
Scottish Socialist James Stevenson1,7306.3New
Majority 10,81639.5+0.6
Turnout 27,38652.6−15.0
Labour hold Swing

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "C" (part 3)
  2. ↑ Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
  3. ↑ The Times, 16 November 1922
  4. ↑ The Times, 8 December 1923
  5. ↑ Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanac, 1927
  6. ↑ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
  7. ↑ Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
  8. ↑ Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
  9. ↑ Whitaker's Almanack, 1944
  10. ↑ "1946 by Elections". Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 12 August 2015.
  11. ↑ "Election Data 1983". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  12. ↑ "Election Data 1987". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  13. ↑ "Election Data 1992". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  14. ↑ "Election Data 1997". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
  15. ↑ "Election Data 2001". Electoral Calculus. Archived from the original on 15 October 2011. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
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