West Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)

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.

West Lothian
Former County constituency
for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of ScotlandLinlithgowshire
1950–1983
Number of membersOne
Replaced byLinlithgow
Livingston
Falkirk East[1]
Created fromLinlithgowshire

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
Election Member[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

Elections in the 1950s
1950 general election: West Lothian[3][4]
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)
1951 general election: West Lothian[5][6]
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
1955 general election: West Lothian[7][8]
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
1959 general election: West Lothian[9][10]
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
West Lothian by-election, 1962[11]
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
1964 general election: West Lothian[12][13]
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
1966 general election: West Lothian[14][15]
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
1970 general election: West Lothian[16][17]
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
February 1974 general election: West Lothian[1][18]
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
October 1974 general election: West Lothian[1][19]
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
1979 general election: West Lothian[1][20]
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

West Lothian question

References
  1. "'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.
  5. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1951". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  7. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1955". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  9. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1959". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  11. "1962 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 2012-02-05. Retrieved 2015-08-17.
  12. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1964". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  14. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1966". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  16. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results 1970". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  18. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results February 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  19. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results October 1974". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
  20. Kimber, Richard. "UK General Election results May 1979". Political Science Resources. Retrieved 24 March 2016.
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