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1955 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1955 United Kingdom general election

← 1951 26 May 1955 1959 →

All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Anthony Eden Clement Attlee Clement Davies
Party Conservative Labour Liberal
Last election 35 seats, 48.6% 35, 47.9% 1 seats, 2.7%
Seats won 36[a] 34 1
Seat change Increase1 Decrease1 Steady
Popular vote 1,273,942 1,188,058 47,273
Percentage 50.1 46.7 1.9%
Swing Increase1.5% Decrease1.2% Decrease0.8%

Results of the 1955 election in Scotland
  Conservative/Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal
  National Liberal

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 26 May 1955 and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested.[1] The election brought unparalleled success to the Unionist Party, which gained 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats at Westminster.[2] It is often cited as the only time one party has achieved a majority of the Scottish vote, although six of the Unionist MPs were returned that year under the label of "National Liberal". As of 2024 it was the last election in which the Conservative and Unionist Party won the largest number of votes in Scotland and the most seats in the country.[3]

MPs

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List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1955–1959)

Results

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Party Seats Seats change Votes % % Change
  Conservative and Unionist (Total) 36 Increase1 1,273,942 50.1 Increase1.5
  Unionist 30 Increase 1 1,056,209 41.5 Increase 1.6
  National Liberal 6 Steady 217,733 8.6 Decrease 0.1
  Labour Party 34 Decrease 1 1,188,058 46.7 Decrease 1.2
  Liberal 1 Steady 47,273 1.9 Decrease0.8
  Communist 0 Steady 13,195 0.5 Increase 0.1
  SNP 0 Steady 12,112 0.5 Increase 0.2
  Other 0 Steady 8,674 0.3 Increase 0.2
Total 71 2,543,254 100

Votes summary

[edit]
Popular vote
Unionist
50.1%
Labour
46.7%
Liberal
1.9%
Other
1.3%
Parliamentary seats
Unionist
50.7%
Labour
47.9%
Liberal
1.4%

Notes

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  1. ^ The seat and vote count figures for the Unionists given here include the National Liberals

References

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  1. ^ "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020.
  2. ^ Torrance, David (April 2018). "'Standing up for Scotland': The Scottish Unionist Party and 'nationalist unionism', 1912–68". Scottish Affairs. 27 (2): 179. doi:10.3366/scot.2018.0235 – via Edinburgh University Press.
  3. ^ Devine, Tom (14 September 2014). "How history turned against Tory-voting Scotland". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 February 2024.