1918 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1918 United Kingdom general election
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All 74 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
	Results of the 1918 election in Scotland for the county and burgh seats Unionist Coalition Liberal Liberal Labour

A general election was held in the United Kingdom in 1918, and all 74 seats in Scotland were contested. The election was called immediately after the Armistice with Germany which ended the First World War, and was held on Saturday, 14 December 1918. The governing coalition, under Prime Minister David Lloyd George, sent letters of endorsement to candidates who supported the coalition government, these being primarily Conservatives and Unionists and Coalition Liberals. These were nicknamed "Coalition Coupons", and led to the election being known as the "coupon election".

Scotland was allocated 74 seats in total, with 71 territorial seats (an increase of 1 over the previous election), comprising 32 burgh constituencies and 38 county constituencies.^[d] The territorial seats used the first past the post voting method. There was one university constituency, which elected an additional 3 members using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method,^[1] which replaced the two single-member constituencies of Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities and Edinburgh and St Andrews Universities. As voters in university constituencies voted under a different system, and in addition to their territorial vote, the results are compiled separately.

The coalition Unionists, who had formed in 1912 from the unification of the Scottish branches of the Conservative and Liberal Unionists were the main beneficiaries of the election, gaining 18 seats compared to the pre-war total of the two parties. The Labour Party came second in terms of votes won, but secured only 6 seats, coming in behind both the Coalition Liberals (led by Prime Minister David Lloyd George and the official Liberal Party (led by Herbert Asquith) in terms of seats. Two further "Labour" members were elected outwith the official Labour slate, with George Barnes winning Glasgow Gorbals for the coalition standing against the official Labour candidate as a Coalition Labour candidate, and Frank Rose winning Aberdeen North under an "Independent Labour" label.

When combined with results from across the UK, the result was a massive landslide in favour of the coalition, with massive losses for Liberals who were not endorsed.^[2] Nearly all the Liberal MPs without coupons were defeated, including party leader H. H. Asquith, who lost his seat in East Fife.^[3] Asquith continued as Liberal leader, and subsequently returned to the parliament as member for Paisley in the 1920 Paisley by-election.

Results

Seats summary

Party			Seats	Last Election^[b]	Seats change
	Coalition (Total)		56	N/A	N/A
		Coalition Unionist	30	12	18
		Coalition Liberal	25	N/A	N/A
		Coalition Labour	1	N/A	N/A
		Coalition NDP	0	N/A	N/A
	Labour		6	3	3
	Liberal		9	57	48
	Unionist (non-coalition)		2	N/A	N/A
	Other		1	0	1
Total			74	72	2

Burgh & County constituencies

Party			Seats	Seats change^[b]	Votes	%	% Change^[b]
	Coalition (Total)		54	N/A	584,259	52.3	N/A
		Coalition Unionist	28	18	336,530	30.8	11.8
		Coalition Liberal	25	N/A	221,145	19.1	N/A
		Coalition Labour	1	N/A	14,247	1.3	N/A
		Coalition NDP	0	N/A	12,337	1.1	N/A
	Labour		6	3	265,744	22.9	19.3
	Liberal		8	49	163,960	15.0	36.6
	Unionist (non-coalition)		2	N/A	21,939	2.0	N/A
	Co-operative Party		0		19,841	1.8
	Highland Land League		0		8,710	0.8
	Scottish Prohibition Party		0		5,212	0.5
	NDP		0		4,297	0.4
	Other		1^[e]		52,749	4.7
Total			71		1,126,711	100

University constituency

The Combined Scottish Universities elected an additional 3 members to the house using the STV voting method.

General election, November 1918: Combined Scottish Universities^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Unionist	YWatson Cheyne	3,719	28.7
	Liberal	YDugald Cowan	3,499	27.0
	Unionist	YHenry Craik	3,286	25.4
	Labour	Peter Macdonald	1,581	12.2
	Independent	William Robert Smith	850	6.6
Majority			1,705	13.2
Turnout			12,935
	Unionist win (new seat)
	Liberal win (new seat)
	Unionist win (new seat)

Votes summary

Popular vote^[c]

Unionist			30.9%
Labour			22.9%
Coalition Liberal			19.1%
Liberal			15.0%
Other			12.1%

Parliamentary seats^[a]

Unionist			30 seats
Coalition Liberal			25 seats
Liberal			9 seats
Labour			6 seats
Other			4 seats

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Combined results for burgh, county and university seats
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Due to the Coalition Coupon both Liberals and Unionists had factions that supported the coalition, making direct comparison difficult. For the purposes of this article, the Coalition Unionists are considered to be the successors to the pre-war Conservative and Liberal Unionists, whilst the pre-war Liberals are compared with the non-coalition official (Asquith) Liberals. The Coalition Liberals are considered to be a new party.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Total and percentage votes given here are for territorial constituencies only
^ One burgh seat, Dundee, was represented by two members of parliament.
^ Frank Rose, elected as member for Aberdeen North under the "Independent Labour" label.

References

^ "Research Briefing: Voting systems in the UK". Library of the House of Commons. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
^ McEwen, J. M. (1962), "The Coupon Election of 1918 and Unionist Members of Parliament", Journal of Modern History, 34 (3): 294–306, doi:10.1086/239118, JSTOR 1874358, S2CID 143523855
^ Ball, Stuart R. (1982). "Asquith's Decline and the General Election of 1918". Scottish Historical Review. 61 (171): 44–61.
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1920

[fn2-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Combined results for burgh, county and university seats

[coalition-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Due to the Coalition Coupon both Liberals and Unionists had factions that supported the coalition, making direct comparison difficult. For the purposes of this article, the Coalition Unionists are considered to be the successors to the pre-war Conservative and Liberal Unionists, whilst the pre-war Liberals are compared with the non-coalition official (Asquith) Liberals. The Coalition Liberals are considered to be a new party.

[fn1-3] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m Total and percentage votes given here are for territorial constituencies only

[4] One burgh seat, Dundee, was represented by two members of parliament.

[8] Frank Rose, elected as member for Aberdeen North under the "Independent Labour" label.

[5] "Research Briefing: Voting systems in the UK". Library of the House of Commons. 10 January 2023. Retrieved 26 November 2024.

[6] McEwen, J. M. (1962), "The Coupon Election of 1918 and Unionist Members of Parliament", Journal of Modern History, 34 (3): 294–306, doi:10.1086/239118, JSTOR 1874358, S2CID 143523855

[7] Ball, Stuart R. (1982). "Asquith's Decline and the General Election of 1918". Scottish Historical Review. 61 (171): 44–61.

[9] Whitaker's Almanack, 1920

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