1950 Belfast West by-election

UK parliamentary by-election August 2021 June 2012 There was a by-election for Belfast West constituency on 29 November 1950. It occurred after the winner at the 1950 United Kingdom general election, James Godfrey MacManaway, was disqualified as he was a priest.https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/39086/page/6129 Page 6129 39086 8 December 1950 The Gazette 28 April 2025 It was won by Thomas Teevan representing the Unionists. Background MacManaway won the Belfast West seat at the 1950 general election. He had been ordained as an Anglican priest in the Church of Ireland by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1925 but later left the priesthood. Shortly after his election, the House of Commons referred the election to a select committee to determine if his election was valid as the House of Commons (Clergy Disqualification) Act 1801 formally banned any Church of England clergyman (which the Church of Ireland was united with as the state church of the United Kingdom at the time, before disestablishment under the Irish Church Act 1869) from being an MP.https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP01-11/RP01-11.pdf The House of Commons (Removal of Clergy Disqualification) Bill House of Commons Library 2001-01-26 2025-04-28 Due to the committee finding the law ambiguous, the Home Secretary referred the matter to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. The Privy Council ruled that because MacManaway had received episcopal ordination by a church that was the established church at the time of the act's passage, he was legally a priest under the 1801 act and was thus disqualified from being an MP. Under the law, MacManaway was liable for a £500 fine for each of the five times that he voted in the Commons while his case was being decided. The government announced that they would bring in legislation to indemnify MacManaway so he would not have to pay any fines.https://time.com/archive/6607902/foreign-news-500-a-day/ Foreign News: £500 a Day 30 October 1950 TIME 28 April 2025 This was done through the passage of the Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Geo6/14-15/29/pdfs/ukpga_19510029_en.pdf Reverend J. G. MacManaway's Indemnity Act 1951 Parliament of the United Kingdom 2025-04-28 Result Thomas Teevan, the Unionist candidate, narrowly beat Jack Beattie, a former MP for the constituency who was the candidate of the Irish Labour Party, by 913 votes. However Beattie beat Teevan at the 1951 general election.United Kingdom Facts 85 Ian McAllister 1982 Palgrave MacMillan UK 9781349042043 Belfast West by-election, 1950http://www.by-elections.co.uk/50.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120325095636/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/50.html 1950 By Election Results 2012-03-25 dead 2015-08-12 Ulster Unionist Party Thomas Teevan 31,796 50.8 –0.7 Irish Labour Party Jack Beattie 30,833 49.2 +2.9 913 1.6 –3.8 62,629 79.8 -3.8 78,459 Ulster Unionist Party External links A Vision of Britain Through Time (Constituency elector numbers) References Category:1950 elections in the United Kingdom West Category:20th century in Belfast Category:1950 elections in Northern Ireland Category:November 1950 in the United Kingdom