Motherwell by-election, 1945 - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Motherwell by-election was held on 12 April 1945, following the death of Labour Party

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) for Motherwell

Motherwell (UK Parliament constituency)

Motherwell was a burgh constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1974. It was formed by the division of Lanarkshire. The name was changed in 1974 to Motherwell and Wishaw...

James Walker

James Walker (UK politician)

James Walker, , was a Labour Party Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, representing the Newport constituency in Monmouthshire from 1929 to 1931 and Motherwell from 1935 until his death in 1945, aged 61....

.

The by-election took place during the Second World War during unusual political conditions. No general election had been held since 1935, at which James Walker narrowly gained the seat for Labour from the Unionist Party.

There was a truce between the major parties: Labour, 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...

, Liberal Party

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...

and the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)

The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...

. The Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

, which had held Motherwell in the past, also undertook to abide by the truce. As a result, the only opposition in by-election came from independent

Independent (politician)

In politics, an independent or non-party politician is an individual not affiliated to any political party. Independents may hold a centrist viewpoint between those of major political parties, a viewpoint more extreme than any major party, or they may have a viewpoint based on issues that they do...

s, minor parties and occasional unofficial party candidates aligned with major parties.

For the by-election, the Labour Party stood Alexander Anderson

Alexander Anderson (Scottish politician)

Alexander Anderson was a Labour Party politician in Scotland, who represented the for Motherwell constituency in the House of Commons for nine years....

. His only opposition came from the Scottish National Party

Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

(SNP), then a small party advocating Scottish independence

Scottish independence

Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....

, who stood Party Secretary Robert McIntyre

Robert McIntyre

Dr Robert Douglas McIntyre was the Leader of the Scottish National Party from 1947–1956 and a doctor by profession...

Results

The election was won by McIntyre, who became the first SNP Member of Parliament. However, Anderson won the seat from McIntyre at the 1945 UK general election a few months later.

Results

See also