Greenock by-election, 1955

The Greenock by-election, 1955 was a parliamentary by-election held on 8 December 1955 for the British House of Commons constituency of Greenock in Renfrewshire, Scotland.

The vacancy had been created by the death of the incumbent Labour MP Hector McNeil, and the seat was won by the future Labour Minister Dickson Mabon.

Candidates

Labour selected Mabon, who at only thirty would become the youngest Labour MP. He had served as a Bevin Boy and in the army. He had been chairman of the Labour Club (1948–50), then chairman of the National Association of Labour Students in 1949–1950, and finally president of Glasgow University Union in 1951–52, and of the Scottish Union of Students, 1954–55.

The Unionist candidate was Ian MacArthur, who was also thirty, and who worked as an associate director of a marketing and advertising company; he had also contested the seat at the general election earlier that year.

General Election 1955: Greenock^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Rt Hon. Hector McNeil	19,378	51.4
	Unionist	Ian MacArthur	18,345	48.6
Majority			1,033	2.7
Turnout			37,723
	Labour hold		Swing

Greenock by-election, 1955^[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Labour	Jesse Dickson Mabon	19,698	53.7
	Unionist	Ian MacArthur	17,004	46.3
Majority			2,694	7.3
Turnout			36,702
	Labour hold		Swing

« 40th Parliament « By-elections to the 41st Parliament of the United Kingdom » 42nd Parliament »

1956	February: Blaydon Leeds North East Hereford Gainsborough Taunton March: Walthamstow West May: Mid Ulster June: Tonbridge July: Newport September: Chester-le-Street November: City of Chester December: Melton

1957	February: Lewisham North Wednesbury Carmarthen March: Bristol West Warwick and Leamington Beckenham Newcastle-upon-Tyne North May: Edinburgh South East Ham North Hornsey June: North Dorset September: Gloucester October: Ipswich November: Leicester South East December: Liverpool Garston

1958	February: Rochdale March: Glasgow Kelvingrove Torrington May: Islington North June: Argyll Ealing South St Helens Weston-super-Mare Wigan November: Morecambe and Lunesdale Chichester Pontypool East Aberdeenshire Shoreditch and Finsbury

1959	January: Southend West March: Belfast East Harrow East South West Norfolk April: Galloway June: Penistone Whitehaven

Lists of UK by-elections 1801–1806 1806–1818 1818–1832 1832–1847 1847–1857 1857–1868 1868–1885 1885–1900 1900–1918 1918–1931 1931–1950 1950–1979 1979–2010 2010–present

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/16/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.