West Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)

Last updated

West Lothian
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland Linlithgowshire
1950–1983
SeatsOne
Created from Linlithgowshire
Replaced by Linlithgow
Livingston
Falkirk East [1]

West Lothian was a Scottish county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1983. Its area corresponds to the Council area of West Lothian. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.

Contents

The constituency is best known for its third and final MP, Tam Dalyell of the Labour Party, whose concerns about Scottish devolution were labelled "the West Lothian question".

History

West Lothian was created for the 1950 general election, partly replacing the previous Linlithgowshire constituency.

With effect from the 1983 general election, it became two different constituencies: Linlithgow and Livingston.

Members of Parliament

ElectionMember [2] PartyNotes
1950 George Mathers Labour later Baron Mathers
1951 John Taylor Labour
1962 by-election Tam Dalyell Labour subsequently MP for Linlithgow
1983 constituency abolished: see Linlithgow

Election results

Elections in the 1950s

1950 general election: West Lothian [3]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour George Mathers 27,236 60.61 '
Unionist W M Younger15,99935.60
Scottish Self-GovernmentMaxwell Hynd1,0392.31
Communist J Borrowman6641.48
Majority11,23725.01
Turnout 44,93879.76
Registered electors 56,339
Labour win (new seat)
1951 general election: West Lothian [4]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Taylor 28,906 60.52 -0.09
Unionist Humphrey Atkins 18,85439.48+3.88
Majority10,05221.04-3.97
Turnout 47,76084.89+5.13
Registered electors 56,259
Labour hold Swing -1.99
1955 general election: West Lothian [5]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Taylor 25,654 59.66 -0.86
Unionist William R Grieve17,34740.34+0.86
Majority8,30719.32-1.72
Turnout 43,00175.38-9.51
Registered electors 57,045
Labour hold Swing -0.86
1959 general election: West Lothian [6]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour John Taylor 27,454 60.29 +0.63
Unionist W Ian Stewart18,08339.71-0.63
Majority9,37120.58+1.26
Turnout 45,53777.90+2.52
Registered electors 58,457
Labour hold Swing +0.63

Elections in the 1960s

West Lothian by-election, 1962 [7]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 21,266 50.82 -9.47
SNP William Wolfe 9,75023.30New
Unionist W. I. Stewart4,78411.43-28.28
Liberal D. Bryce4,53710.84New
Communist Gordon McLennan 1,5113.61New
Majority11,51627.52+6.94
Turnout 41,848
Labour hold Swing
1964 general election: West Lothian [8]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 24,933 50.32 -9.97
SNP William Wolfe 15,08730.45N/A
Unionist RA Gordon Stuart8,91918.00-21.71
Communist Irene Swan 6101.23N/A
Majority9,84619.87-0.71
Turnout 49,54979.50+1.60
Registered electors 62,328
Labour hold Swing -20.21
1966 general election: West Lothian [9]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 26,662 52.37 +2.05
SNP William Wolfe 17,95535.27+4.82
Conservative David L MacKinnon5,72611.25-6.75
Communist Irene Swan 5671.11-0.12
Majority8,70717.10-2.77
Turnout 50,91079.59+0.09
Registered electors 63,967
Labour hold Swing -1.39

Elections in the 1970s

1970 general election: West Lothian [10]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 29,360 52.9 +0.5
SNP William Wolfe 15,62028.2-7.1
Conservative Michael Ancram 10,04818.1+6.9
Communist Christopher Bett4590.8-0.3
Majority13,74024.7+7.6
Turnout 55,48776.7-2.9
Registered electors 72,366
Labour hold Swing +3.8
February 1974 general election: West Lothian [1] [11]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 28,112 45.3 -7.6
SNP William Wolfe 21,69035.0+6.8
Conservative Alexander Pollock 11,80419.0+0.9
Communist Christopher Bett4380.7-0.1
Majority6,42210.3-14.4
Turnout 62,04480.6+3.9
Registered electors 76,946
Labour hold Swing -7.2
October 1974 general election: West Lothian [1] [12]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 27,687 45.3 0.0
SNP William Wolfe 24,99740.9+5.9
Conservative Anthony Lester6,08610.0-9.0
Liberal Hector MacAulay2,0833.4New
Communist Christopher Bett2470.4-0.3
Majority2,6904.4-5.9
Turnout 61,10078.8-1.8
Registered electors 77,527
Labour hold Swing -3.0
1979 general election: West Lothian [1] [13]
PartyCandidateVotes%±%
Labour Tam Dalyell 36,713 54.9 +9.6
SNP William Wolfe 16,63124.9-16.0
Conservative John Roderick Whyte13,16219.7+9.7
Communist William Sneddon4040.6+0.2
Majority20,08230.0+25.6
Turnout 66,91078.1-0.7
Registered electors 85,645
Labour hold Swing +22.8

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "'West Lothian', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  2. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)
  3. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results February 1950". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1951". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  5. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1955". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  6. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1959". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "1962 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
  8. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1964". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1966". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  10. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1970". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  11. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results February 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  12. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results October 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  13. ↑ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results May 1979". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
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