The North East Lanarkshire by-election was a Parliamentary by-election held on 9 March 1911.[1] It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first past the post voting system.

Electoral history

General election Jan 1910: North East Lanarkshire [2]
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Thomas Fleming Wilson 9,105 49.8 +9.4
Conservative James Robertson Wilson 7,012 38.4 +8.0
Labour Joseph Sullivan 2,160 11.8 -17.4
Majority 2,093 11.4 +1.4
Turnout 18,277 83.8 +3.0
Liberal hold Swing +0.7
General election December 1910: Electorate 22,554
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal Thomas Fleming Wilson 9,848 58.0 +8.2
Conservative John Peers Boyd-Carpenter 7,142 42.0 +3.6
Majority 2,706 16.0 +4.6
Turnout 16,990 75.3 -8.5
Liberal hold Swing +2.3

Candidates

John Robertson

Although there had been no Labour candidate at the last election, there had been a Labour candidate in January 1910, who finished bottom of the poll. For this by-election, John Robertson was selected as the Labour candidate and was sponsored by the Scottish Miners' Federation. This was the first instance in the 1910-18 parliament in which Liberal and Labour candidates had opposed each other. Labour's intervention to contest this Liberal seat gave the Unionists a real hope of winning.

Result

Duncan Millar
By-Election 9 March 1911: Electorate 28,759
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal James Duncan Millar 7,976 45.3 -12.7
Conservative Park Goff 6,776 38.4 -3.6
Labour John Robertson 2,879 16.3 New
Majority 1,200 6.9 -9.1
Turnout 17,631 78.2 +2.9
Liberal hold Swing -4.6

Labour's share of the vote was well down on the share they achieved in this seat in both 1901 and 1904.

Aftermath

A General Election was due to take place by the end of 1915. By the autumn of 1914, the following candidates had been adopted to contest that election. Due to the outbreak of war, the election never took place.

General Election 1914/15: Electorate
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Liberal James Duncan Millar
Labour John Robertson

Following boundary changes, most of the seat made up Bothwell for the 1918 general election. Millar moved on to contest neighbouring Motherwell where he was defeated. Goff went off to contest Cleveland where he was elected. Robertson remained to contest Bothwell:

General election 14 December 1918: Bothwell Electorate 26,572
Party Candidate Votes % ±%
Unionist David Macdonald 9,359 50.9
Labour John Robertson 9,027 49.1
Majority 332 1.8
Turnout 18,386
Unionist win (new seat)

References

  1. ↑ Craig, F.W.S. (1987). Chronology of British Parliamentary By-elections 1833–1987. Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 105.
  2. ↑ Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1916
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1974). British parliamentary election results 1885-1918 (1 ed.). London: Macmillan.
  • Who's Who: www.ukwhoswho.com
  • Debrett's House of Commons 1916
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