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1978 Berwick and East Lothian by-election

1978 UK parliamentary by-election

Field	Value
election_name	1978 Berwick and East Lothian by-election
type	parliamentary
country	United Kingdom
seats_for_election	Constituency of Berwick and East Lothian
ongoing	no
previous_election	October 1974 United Kingdom general election
previous_year	Oct. 1974
next_election	1979 United Kingdom general election
next_year	1979
election_date	26 October 1978
candidate1	John Home Robertson
image1	[[File:Johnhomerobertson.jpg	x160px]]
party1	Labour Party (UK)
popular_vote1	20,530
percentage1	47.4%
swing1	4.1%
candidate2	Margaret Marshall
image2	[[File:Portrait placeholder.svg	x160px]]
party2	Conservative Party (UK)
popular_vote2	17,418
percentage2	40.2%
swing2	2.6%
candidate3	Isobel Lindsay
image3	[[File:Portrait placeholder.svg	x160px]]
party3	Scottish National Party
popular_vote3	3,799
percentage3	8.8%
swing3	4.4%
title	MP
before_election	John Mackintosh
before_party	Labour Party (UK)
after_election	John Home Robertson
after_party	Labour Party (UK)

The 1978 Berwick and East Lothian by-election was a by-election held for the House of Commons constituency of Berwick and East Lothian in Scotland on 26 October 1978. It was one of two UK parliamentary by-elections held on that day, and was won by the Labour Party candidate John Home Robertson.

Vacancy

The seat had become vacant when the Labour Member of Parliament (MP), John Mackintosh had died at the age of 48 on 30 July 1978. He had held the seat since the October 1974 general election, having previously been MP for the seat between 1966 and the February 1974 election.

Candidates

The Labour candidate was 29-year-old John Home Robertson, a farmer who had been a member of Berwickshire District Council since 1974. The Conservative Party candidate was Margaret Marshall. The Liberals selected Tam Glen.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) fielded Isobel Lindsay. The SNP national leadership chose her as the candidate, which party rules entitled them to do, but tension arose locally from the choice not to endorse the person who the local SNP organisation had selected to fight the next general election.

On the eve of the poll the Conservatives, including Margaret Marshall, reportedly had high hopes of victory and the Glasgow Herald predicted that failure to win the seat would be 'seen as in many quarters as an unmitigated disaster' for the Conservative Party in Scotland. Labour however felt the SNP vote would be reduced with many SNP voters switching to them. John Home Robertson talked of making the seat safe for Labour, but others in the party were described as being 'wary of their chances'. Isobel Lindsay expected to increase the SNP vote, while Tam Glen also was confident that the Liberal vote would rise.

Result

The result was a victory for Robertson, with an increased majority of 3,112 votes. This was well against the general trend of by-elections in the 1974-79 Parliament, which had been against Labour. It also saw a decline in the SNP vote, continuing a trend at a few other elections earlier in the year. Lindsay and Glen lost their deposits.

Robertson held the seat until its abolition for the 1983 general election, when he was returned for the new East Lothian constituency. He went on to represent the Scottish Parliament constituency of East Lothian.

Votes

Previous election

References

[http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge74b/i02.htm October 1974 general election results] at Richard Kimber's political science resources
[http://www.psr.keele.ac.uk/area/uk/ge74a/i02.htm February 1974 general election results] at Richard Kimber's political science resources
(26 October 1978). "Tories get scent of a 'famous victory'". The Glasgow Herald.
"1978 By Election Results".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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