Bristol South East by-election, 1961

The Bristol South East by-election, 1961 was a by-election

By-election

A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....

held on 4 May 1961 for the British House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

constituency

United Kingdom constituencies

In the United Kingdom , each of the electoral areas or divisions called constituencies elects one or more members to a parliament or assembly.Within the United Kingdom there are now five bodies with members elected by constituencies:...

of Bristol South East
Bristol South East (UK Parliament constituency)
Bristol South East was a borough constituency in the city of Bristol. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system of election....

in the city of Bristol

Bristol

Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...

.

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

(MP) Tony Benn

Tony Benn

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

had inherited from his father a hereditary peerage as Viscount Stansgate

Viscount Stansgate

Viscount Stansgate, of Stansgate in the County of Essex, is a currently disclaimed title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1942 for the Labour politician and former Secretary of State for India and Secretary of State for Air, William Wedgwood Benn. He was the second son of Sir...

, thus making him ineligible to serve in the House of Commons

British House of Commons

. He had been elected at a by-election in 1950.

Benn stood in the by-election anyway, but due to his ineligibility, the Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

candidate Malcolm St Clair

Malcolm St. Clair (UK politician)

Malcolm Archibald James St. Clair was a British Conservative Party politician.He was the son of Major-General G.P. St Clair CB CBE DSO, and was educated at Eton College....

was declared the winner.

When the law was later changed to allow Benn to renounce his peerage, St Clair resigned his seat, and Benn was returned to the House of Commons at the Bristol South East by-election, 1963

Bristol South East by-election, 1963

The Bristol South East by-election, 1963 was a by-election held on 20 August 1963 for the British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol....

Votes

See also