Inverness by-election, 1954
Encyclopedia
The Inverness by-election, 1954 was a by-election
held on 21 December 1954 for the British House of Commons
constituency
of Inverness
.
The by-election was caused by the resignation
of the sitting Unionist
Member of Parliament
(MP) Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton
, by his application for the Chiltern Hundreds
. Douglas-Hamilton had held the seat since 1950
.
The result was a victory for the Unionist candidate Neil McLean
. McLean held the seat until 1964
when he lost to the Liberal
Russell Johnston.
to the west coast of Scotland and included the Isle of Skye and some nearby islands. More than half the electorate lived in the town of Inverness itself however.
and Sandhurst
educated Lieutenant Colonel Neil McLean
who had lived in the Highlands as a child. McLean had the advantage of knowing that Douglas-Hamilton was going to resign and had moved to the constituency in anticipation of the by-election. He had been installed as the prospective candidate for about 18 months, using the time to get to know the area well and establish a rapport with the electorate. Labour
selected Dundee
engine driver and trade union
official, William Paterson, aged 44. The former Labour candidate at the 1951 general election
, Alexander Macnair had indicated he wished to stand again but the local Labour Party preferred a new man. Macnair then said he might put up as an Independent Labour candidate but did not do so in the end. The Liberals
, who had not fought the seat at the previous general election in 1951
settled on John Bannerman
a Gaelic speaking farmer and former Scotland Rugby international, who had been Liberal candidate for Argyll
at the general elections of 1945
and 1950
.
Clement Attlee
reminding voters that the Labour Party in office had developed hydro-electric power and a great programme of afforestation
in the Highlands.
and a rise in support for the Liberals and Labour.” Despite the opinion in The Times
newspaper that ‘...it is possible to argue that if the Liberals could not recover Inverness this time, when all the circumstances and candidate favoured them, their best days there seem to be over for good’ the Inverness result also pre-figured the Liberal revival of the late 1950s and 1960s when under the leadership of Jo Grimond the party won its first by-election victory since 1929 at Torrington
in 1958 and more spectacularly at Orpington
in 1962. As already noted, the Liberals best days in Inverness were hardly behind them as they won the seat in 1964 and the Liberal Democrats
‘ Danny Alexander
holds the equivalent constituency today.
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
held on 21 December 1954 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 Inverness
Inverness (UK Parliament constituency)
Inverness was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election....
.
The by-election was caused by the resignation
Resignation from the British House of Commons
Members of Parliament sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are technically forbidden to resign. To circumvent this prohibition, a legal fiction is used...
of the sitting Unionist
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...
Member of Parliament
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) Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton
Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton
Wing Commander Lord Malcolm Avondale Douglas-Hamilton OBE, DFC was a Scottish nobleman and politician....
, by his application for the Chiltern Hundreds
Chiltern Hundreds
Appointment to the office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham is a sinecure appointment which is used as a device allowing a Member of the United Kingdom Parliament to resign his or her seat...
. Douglas-Hamilton had held the seat since 1950
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
.
The result was a victory for the Unionist candidate Neil McLean
Neil McLean (politician)
Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
. McLean held the seat until 1964
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...
when he lost to the Liberal
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
Russell Johnston.
The constituency
In 1954 the constituency of Inverness was one of the largest Parliamentary constituencies in Britain spread across 4000 square miles (10,360 km²) of Scottish Highland, from the county town of InvernessInverness
Inverness is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for the Highland council area, and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands of Scotland...
to the west coast of Scotland and included the Isle of Skye and some nearby islands. More than half the electorate lived in the town of Inverness itself however.
Candidates
The Tories chose as their representative the 36 year old, EtonEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
and Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
educated Lieutenant Colonel Neil McLean
Neil McLean (politician)
Lieutenant-Colonel Neil Loudon Desmond McLean DSO, known as Billy McLean , was a British Army intelligence officer and politician who led a celebrated Special Operations Executive operation in Albania during the Second World War, and later attempted to overthrow Communism in the country...
who had lived in the Highlands as a child. McLean had the advantage of knowing that Douglas-Hamilton was going to resign and had moved to the constituency in anticipation of the by-election. He had been installed as the prospective candidate for about 18 months, using the time to get to know the area well and establish a rapport with the electorate. 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...
selected Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...
engine driver and trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
official, William Paterson, aged 44. The former Labour candidate at the 1951 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
, Alexander Macnair had indicated he wished to stand again but the local Labour Party preferred a new man. Macnair then said he might put up as an Independent Labour candidate but did not do so in the end. The Liberals
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
, who had not fought the seat at the previous general election in 1951
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...
settled on John Bannerman
John Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan
John MacDonald Bannerman, Baron Bannerman of Kildonan OBE was a Scottish farmer, rugby union internationalist and Liberal politician.-Family and education:...
a Gaelic speaking farmer and former Scotland Rugby international, who had been Liberal candidate for Argyll
Argyllshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Argyllshire was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1708 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 until 1950, when it was renamed Argyll...
at the general elections of 1945
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
and 1950
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
.
Election issues
The first political controversy to emerge in relation to Inverness was the timing of the by-election itself. Labour in particular objected to what they called ‘the sharp practice’ of moving the by-election writ by the Tories when they did, based on the deliberate shortening of campaign time this would mean for opposition candidates, especially in a geographically large and electorally scattered constituency and at a difficult time of year - the dead of winter and just before Christmas. According to one account in a national newspaper the topical issues were the problems of depopulation, transport and midges. However the Liberal candidate, John Bannerman, based his campaign on support for home rule for Scotland )and an increase in old age pensions. Paterson received a letter of support from former prime ministerPrime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
reminding voters that the Labour Party in office had developed hydro-electric power and a great programme of afforestation
Afforestation
Afforestation is the establishment of a forest or stand of trees in an area where there was no forest. Reforestation is the reestablishment of forest cover, either naturally or artificially...
in the Highlands.
Votes
Impact
The by-election result caused little stir at the time, although the Liberals were clearly pleased with their performance given they had not fought the seat in 1951 and had pushed Labour into third place. It does however seem that Inverness served as a portent of what was to come in Scotland over the next few general elections. One historian has commented that the “...Conservative Party was to suffer in the following decades from the effects of growing support for home rule, later translated into support for the Scottish National PartyScottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
and a rise in support for the Liberals and Labour.” Despite the opinion in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
newspaper that ‘...it is possible to argue that if the Liberals could not recover Inverness this time, when all the circumstances and candidate favoured them, their best days there seem to be over for good’ the Inverness result also pre-figured the Liberal revival of the late 1950s and 1960s when under the leadership of Jo Grimond the party won its first by-election victory since 1929 at Torrington
Torrington by-election, 1958
The Torrington by-election of 1958, in Devon, England, was the first gain by the British Liberal Party at a by-election since Holland with Boston in 1929....
in 1958 and more spectacularly at Orpington
Orpington by-election, 1962
The Orpington by-election of 1962 is often described as the start of the Liberal Party revival in the United Kingdom.The election was caused by the appointment of Donald Sumner, Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Orpington as a County Court Judge...
in 1962. As already noted, the Liberals best days in Inverness were hardly behind them as they won the seat in 1964 and the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
‘ Danny Alexander
Danny Alexander
Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....
holds the equivalent constituency today.
See also
- List of United Kingdom by-elections
- Inverness constituencyInverness (UK Parliament constituency)Inverness was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 until 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election....
- Inverness by-election, 1922Inverness by-election, 1922The Inverness by-election, 1922 was a by-election held on 16 March 1922 for the British House of Commons constituency of Inverness.The by-election was caused by the resignation of the sitting Coalition Liberal Member of Parliament Thomas Brash Morison, upon his appointment as a Senator of the...
- Murdoch MacDonaldMurdoch MacdonaldSir Murdoch Macdonald was a British politician.Born in Inverness, Macdonald was educated at Farraline Park Institution, Inverness....