1961 Bristol South East by-election

UK Parliamentary by-election August 2019 August 2019 1961 05 04 y by-election Tony Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate (disqualified) Malcolm St Clair Labour Party (UK) Conservative Party (UK) Tony Benn 1967 (cropped).jpg 1959 1959 United Kingdom general election 1963 (by-election) 1963 Bristol South East by-election 23,275 10,231 69.5% 30.5% 13.3 pp 13.3 pp 33,506 56.7% (24.7 pp) Bristol South East constituency Conservative Party (UK) The 1961 Bristol South East by-election was a by-election held on 4 May 1961 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol. The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Tony Benn, had inherited a hereditary peerage from his father and became Viscount Stansgate, thus making him automatically ineligible to serve in the House of Commons. He had been elected at a by-election in 1950. Benn stood in the by-election anyway—claiming that he had not asked for and would not ask for a writ of summons to the House of Lords—and won the majority of votes, but he was forbidden by Parliamentary authorities to physically return to the Commons due to his ineligibility. The Conservative Party candidate Malcolm St Clair—who was himself the heir to a peerage—filed a petition against the result, and was declared the winner after a court challenge. When the law was later changed by the Peerage Act 1963 to allow Benn to renounce his peerage, Benn immediately did so and, fulfilling a promise to the electors of Bristol South East, St Clair resigned his seat. Benn was returned to the House of Commons at the 1963 Bristol South East by-election, which was not contested by the Conservatives. Result 1961 Bristol South East by-electionhttp://www.by-elections.co.uk/61.html https://web.archive.org/web/20120325095631/http://www.by-elections.co.uk/61.html 1961 By Election Results 2012-03-25 dead 2015-08-15 Labour Party (UK) Viscount Stansgate (Tony Benn) (disqualified) 23,275 69.5 +13.3 Conservative Party (UK) Malcolm St Clair 10,231 30.5 −13.3 red −13,044 red −39.0 N/A 33,506 56.7 −24.7 Conservative Party (UK) Labour Party (UK) red −13.3 See also Tony Benn Bristol South East constituency 1950 Bristol South East by-election 1963 Bristol South East by-election Lists of United Kingdom by-elections Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election References British Parliamentary by-elections, 1961: Bristol South East Category:1961 in England Category:Tony Benn Category:1961 elections in the United Kingdom South East Category:1960s in Bristol Category:May 1961 in the United Kingdom