1979 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

none April 2021 April 2021 1979 United Kingdom general election in Scotland Scotland List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1979–1983) 3 May 1979 76.84% ( 2.03%) parliamentary no October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Scotland Oct. 1974 List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (October 1974–1979) 1983 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1983 All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons Prime Minister James Callaghan (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 James Callaghan 5 April 1976 Labour Party (UK) Cardiff South East 41 seats, 36.3% 44 3 1,211,445 41.5% 5.2 pp Margaret Thatcher at White House (cropped).jpg 130 120 160 0 6 Margaret Thatcher 11 February 1975 Conservative Party (UK) Finchley 16 seats, 24.7% 22 6 916,155 31.4% 6.7 pp David Steel 1985 (cropped).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 David Steel 7 July 1976 Scottish Liberal Party Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale 3 seats, 8.3% 3 262,224 9.0% 0.7 pp Liberal Party (UK) William Wolfe 1 June 1969 Scottish National Party Ran in West Lothian (defeated) 11 seats, 30.4% 2 9 504,259 17.3% 13.1 pp File:United Kingdom general election 1979 in Scotland.svg On Thursday 3 May 1979, the 1979 United Kingdom general election was held in Scotland, to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons, with 71 constituencies being in Scotland.Commons results report https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-information-office/m08.pdf live https://web.archive.org/web/20210409234254/https://www.parliament.uk/globalassets/documents/commons-information-office/m08.pdf 9 April 2021 British Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006 47 The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher, ousted the incumbent Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan, gaining a parliamentary majority of 43 seats. The election was the first of four consecutive election victories for the Conservative Party. Background The 1979 Scottish devolution referendum, held on 1 March, had resulted in a majority of those voting casting their votes in favour of the creation of a Scottish Assembly, but the rules of the referendum required at least 40% of the total electorate supporting the proposal, a total which was not reached. The minority Labour government, knowing that many of its own MPs would rebel if they pressed on with the legislation to create the Assembly, refused demands from the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru to do so. On 28 March, the SNP joined the Conservatives, Liberals and others in supporting a motion of no confidence in the Government which passed by one vote, forcing a general election.Clark George The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979 1979 Times Books Ltd London 0-7230-0225-8 26 The nation's choice a Conservative woman Prime Minister After the election, Anthony Finlay wrote in The Glasgow Herald that the SNP's support for the motion of no confidence "seemed an odd move at the time", but was based on the notion that Scottish electors would be so outraged at devolution not being enacted, despite winning the support of 52% who voted, that they would turn to the SNP in protest. As Finlay noted, the SNP's stance was to prove a "fundamental error of judgement".Finlay Anthony Tale of brave soldiers who brought down their own castle https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19790505&printsec=frontpage&hl=en 20 June 2021 The Glasgow Herald 5 May 1979 4 At an election rally in Glasgow at the start of the campaign, Callaghan attacked the SNP's role in joining with the Conservatives to bring his Government down. He described them as "turkeys voting for Christmas" and urged his Scottish supporters to "carve them up in the polling booths."George Clark The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979 1979 Times Books Ltd London 0-7230-0225-8 27–28 The nation's choice a Conservative woman Prime Minister At the end of April, an Opinion Research Centre opinion poll for The Scotsman predicted Labour would win 42% of the votes in Scotland with the Conservatives winning 34%, the SNP 15% and the Liberal Party 8%.Russell William Ex-Labour MP defects to Tories https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=GGgVawPscysC&dat=19790430&printsec=frontpage&hl=en 24 June 2021 The Glasgow Herald 30 April 1979 1 Candidates Below is a table summarising the candidates of the February 1974 general election in Wales.https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7529/CBP-7529.pdf UK Election Statistics: 1918-2023, A Century of Elections Cracknell Richard Uberoi Elise Burton Matthew 9 August 2023 House of Commons Library 23 8 August 2026https://api.parliament.uk/uk-general-elections/general-elections/38 UK General Elections Results 1832-2019 12 August 2026British Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006 47 Affiliation Candidates Labour Party 71 Conservative and Unionist Party 71 Scottish National Party 71 Scottish Liberal Party 43 Communist Party of Great Britain 12 Workers Revolutionary Party 6 Scottish Labour Party 3The candidates that stood were Colin Boyd in Edinburgh Central, Jim Sillars in South Ayrshire and Brian Monaghan in Paisley. National Front 1 Independent Labour 1Candidate N.G. Armstrong stood in Glasgow Pollok. Ecology Party 1 Fine Gael (Scotland) 1Candidate Uilleam Bell stood in Inverness. Socialist Unity 1Candidate Walter MacLellan stood in Glasgow Queen's Park. Independent Democrat 1Candidate R.B. Hilton stood in Glasgow Pollok. Christian Democrat 1Candidate R. Darroch stood in Central Dunbartonshire.Total 284 Outcome Of the 11 SNP MPs elected at the previous election, seven were defeated by Conservatives and two by Labour candidates. The two surviving SNP MPs were Gordon Wilson in Dundee East and Donald Stewart in the Western Isles.The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979 1979 Times Books Ltd London 0-7230-0225-8 272–273 Wilson's survival was attributed by Anthony Finlay as being due to Labour's choice of Jimmy Reid as their candidate to oppose him. Labour also gained Glasgow Cathcart from the Conservative's Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland Teddy Taylor. Jim Sillars, a former Labour MP who had led the breakaway Scottish Labour Party lost his South Ayrshire seat to Labour's George Foulkes,The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1979 1979 Times Books Ltd London 0-7230-0225-8 39 & 273 although that represented no change in the seat from the last election. When combined with results from across the United Kingdom, the election saw a 5.2% swing from Labour to the Conservatives, the largest swing since the 1945 election. Margaret Thatcher became the UK's first female prime minister. Results +PartyBritish Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006 47SeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%) Labour Party (UK) 44 3 0 3 62.0 1,211,445 41.5 5.2 Conservative Party (UK) 22 7 1 6 30.9 916,155 31.4 6.7 Scottish Liberal Party 3 0 0 4.2 262,224 9.0 0.7 Scottish National Party 2 0 9 9 2.8 504,259 17.3 13.1 Scottish Labour Party (1976) 0 colspan="3" New — 13,737 0.5 New Communist Party of Great Britain 0 0 0 — 5,926 0.2 0.1 Independent Labour 0 colspan="3" Did not stand in 1974 — 869 0.0 Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK) 0 colspan="3" New — 809 0.0 New Ecology Party 0 colspan="3" New — 552 0.0 New   Christian Democrat 0 colspan=3 New — 312 0.0 New   Fine Gael (Scotland) 0 0 0 — 112 0.0 National Front (UK) 0 0 0 — 104 0.0 Socialist Unity (UK) 0 colspan=3 New — 92 0.0 New   Independent Democrat 0 colspan=3 New — 41 0.0 New Total 71 0 100.0 2,916,637 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 76.8https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7529/CBP-7529.pdf UK Election Statistics: 1918-2023, A Century of Elections Cracknell Richard Uberoi Elise Burton Matthew 9 August 2023 House of Commons Library 29 8 August 2026British Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006 91 2.0 Popular vote #ddd 600px 410px Labour Scottish Labour Party 41.5 Conservative Scottish Conservative Party 31.4 SNP Scottish National Party 17.3 Liberal Scottish Liberal Party 9.0 Other #777777 0.6 Parliamentary seats #ddd 600px 410px Labour Scottish Labour Party 62.0 Conservative Scottish Conservative Party 31.0 Liberal Scottish Liberal Party 4.2 SNP Scottish National Party 2.81 Incumbents defeated PartyNameConstituencyOffice held whilst in ParliamentYear electedDefeated byPartyScottish National PartyDouglas HendersonEast AberdeenshireSNP Spokesman for Employment and Industry1974Albert McQuarrieConservative Party (UK)Andrew WelshSouth AngusSNP Spokesperson for Housing1974Peter FraserConservative Party (UK)Iain MacCormickArgyllshire1974John MackayConservative Party (UK)Hamish WattBanffshire1974David MylesConservative Party (UK)Margaret EwingEast Dunbartonshire1974Norman HoggLabour Party (UK)George ThompsonGalloway1974Ian LangConservative Party (UK)Winnie EwingMoray and NairnSNP Spokesperson for External Affairs and EEC1974Alex PollockConservative Party (UK)Douglas CrawfordPerth and East Perthshire1974Bill WalkerConservative Party (UK)George ReidClackmannan and East Stirlingshire1974Martin O'NeillLabour Party (UK)Conservative Party (UK)Teddy TaylorGlasgow CathcartShadow Secretary of State for Scotland (1976-1979)1964John MaxtonLabour Party (UK)Scottish Labour Party (1976)Jim SillarsElected as a Labour MPSouth AyrshireLeader of the Scottish Labour Party (1976–1979)1970George FoulkesLabour Party (UK) See also 1979 United Kingdom general election in England 1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland 1979 United Kingdom general election in Wales List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1979–1983) Notes References Politics Scotland United Kingdom collapsed Category:1979 in Scotland Category:1970s elections in Scotland 1979 #Scotland