West Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)
| West Lothian | |
|---|---|
| Former county constituency for the House of Commons | |
| Subdivisions of Scotland | Linlithgowshire |
| 1950–1983 | |
| Seats | One |
| 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.
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
[edit]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
[edit]| Election | Member[2] | Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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
[edit]Elections in the 1950s
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | George Mathers | 27,236 | 60.61 | ' | |
| Unionist | W M Younger | 15,999 | 35.60 | ||
| Scottish Self-Government | Maxwell Hynd | 1,039 | 2.31 | ||
| Communist | J Borrowman | 664 | 1.48 | ||
| Majority | 11,237 | 25.01 | |||
| Turnout | 44,938 | 79.76 | |||
| Registered electors | 56,339 | ||||
| Labour win (new seat) | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 28,906 | 60.52 | −0.09 | |
| Unionist | Humphrey Atkins | 18,854 | 39.48 | +3.88 | |
| Majority | 10,052 | 21.04 | −3.97 | ||
| Turnout | 47,760 | 84.89 | +5.13 | ||
| Registered electors | 56,259 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -1.99 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 25,654 | 59.66 | −0.86 | |
| Unionist | William R Grieve | 17,347 | 40.34 | +0.86 | |
| Majority | 8,307 | 19.32 | −1.72 | ||
| Turnout | 43,001 | 75.38 | −9.51 | ||
| Registered electors | 57,045 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -0.86 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 27,454 | 60.29 | +0.63 | |
| Unionist | W Ian Stewart | 18,083 | 39.71 | −0.63 | |
| Majority | 9,371 | 20.58 | +1.26 | ||
| Turnout | 45,537 | 77.90 | +2.52 | ||
| Registered electors | 58,457 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +0.63 | |||
Elections in the 1960s
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 21,266 | 50.82 | −9.47 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 9,750 | 23.30 | New | |
| Unionist | W. I. Stewart | 4,784 | 11.43 | −28.28 | |
| Liberal | D. Bryce | 4,537 | 10.84 | New | |
| Communist | Gordon McLennan | 1,511 | 3.61 | New | |
| Majority | 11,516 | 27.52 | +6.94 | ||
| Turnout | 41,848 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 24,933 | 50.32 | −9.97 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 15,087 | 30.45 | N/A | |
| Unionist | RA Gordon Stuart | 8,919 | 18.00 | −21.71 | |
| Communist | Irene Swan | 610 | 1.23 | N/A | |
| Majority | 9,846 | 19.87 | −0.71 | ||
| Turnout | 49,549 | 79.50 | +1.60 | ||
| Registered electors | 62,328 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -20.21 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 26,662 | 52.37 | +2.05 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 17,955 | 35.27 | +4.82 | |
| Conservative | David L MacKinnon | 5,726 | 11.25 | −6.75 | |
| Communist | Irene Swan | 567 | 1.11 | −0.12 | |
| Majority | 8,707 | 17.10 | −2.77 | ||
| Turnout | 50,910 | 79.59 | +0.09 | ||
| Registered electors | 63,967 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -1.39 | |||
Elections in the 1970s
[edit]| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 29,360 | 52.9 | +0.5 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 15,620 | 28.2 | −7.1 | |
| Conservative | Michael Ancram | 10,048 | 18.1 | +6.9 | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 459 | 0.8 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 13,740 | 24.7 | +7.6 | ||
| Turnout | 55,487 | 76.7 | −2.9 | ||
| Registered electors | 72,366 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +3.8 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 28,112 | 45.3 | −7.6 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 21,690 | 35.0 | +6.8 | |
| Conservative | Alexander Pollock | 11,804 | 19.0 | +0.9 | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 438 | 0.7 | −0.1 | |
| Majority | 6,422 | 10.3 | −14.4 | ||
| Turnout | 62,044 | 80.6 | +3.9 | ||
| Registered electors | 76,946 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -7.2 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 27,687 | 45.3 | 0.0 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 24,997 | 40.9 | +5.9 | |
| Conservative | Anthony Lester | 6,086 | 10.0 | −9.0 | |
| Liberal | Hector MacAulay | 2,083 | 3.4 | New | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 247 | 0.4 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 2,690 | 4.4 | −5.9 | ||
| Turnout | 61,100 | 78.8 | −1.8 | ||
| Registered electors | 77,527 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -3.0 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 36,713 | 54.9 | +9.6 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 16,631 | 24.9 | −16.0 | |
| Conservative | John Roderick Whyte | 13,162 | 19.7 | +9.7 | |
| Communist | William Sneddon | 404 | 0.6 | +0.2 | |
| Majority | 20,082 | 30.0 | +25.6 | ||
| Turnout | 66,910 | 78.1 | −0.7 | ||
| Registered electors | 85,645 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +22.8 | |||
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "'West Lothian', Feb 1974 - May 1983". ElectionWeb Project. Cognitive Computing Limited. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results February 1950". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1951". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1955". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1959". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ "1962 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 5 February 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1964". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1966". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1970". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results February 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results October 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
- ^ Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results May 1979". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.