The West Lothian by-election, 1962 was a British parliamentary by-election held in the West Lothian

West Lothian (UK Parliament constituency)

West Lothian was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1983. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post voting system....

 constituency in Scotland on 14 June 1962, caused by the death of John Taylor

John Taylor (West Lothian)

John Taylor was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for West Lothian.He was first elected at the 1951 general election, and his death in 1962 at the age of 60 caused a hotly-contested by-election, in which William Wolfe of the Scottish National Party was beaten by...

. It was important for two reasons.

Firstly, it saw the election of Tam Dalyell

Tam Dalyell

Sir Thomas Dalyell Loch, 11th Baronet , known as Tam Dalyell, is a British Labour Party politician, who was a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons from 1962 to 2005, first for West Lothian and then for Linlithgow.-Early life:...

, who went on to become a long-standing and controversial MP.

Secondly, it saw a strong showing by 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....

, and people began to take them seriously. Their candidate was William Wolfe

William Wolfe

William Cuthbertson "Billy" Wolfe was the leader of the Scottish National Party from 1969 to 1979...

, who became their leader for several years.