Unionist Party (Scotland) - Electoral Record and The 1955 Election

Electoral Record and The 1955 Election

Compared to the Conservative Party's pre-1886 record in Scotland, as well as the post-1965 Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, the 1912-1965 Scottish Unionist Party's electoral record stands out as a success.

With the Liberal Party divided and declining, the Scottish Unionist Party managed to attract former Liberal voters during this period — sometimes with candidates standing on a Liberal Unionist ticket. The creation of the National Liberals also assisted the Unionist vote.

Within this context their support grew, and the emergence of the Labour Party as a threat to the middle-classes resulted in the Scottish Unionists achieving a majority of Scottish seats in the 1924 election, 37 out of Scotland's 73. Suffering a setback in 1929, they reasserted themselves in the 1931 election during an electoral backlash against the Labour Party that resulted in the creation of the National Government. The Scottish Unionist Party won 79% of the Scottish seats that year: 58 out of 73. The following election of 1935 returned a reduced majority of 45 MPs.

This remained the situation until Labour's landslide victory in the 1945 election. The Unionists won only 30 of the (now) 71 constituencies. In the 1950 election, a majority of Labour MPs was returned again, but the Scottish Unionist Party closed the gap by returning 32 MPs. In the subsequent Conservative election victory of 1951, an equal number of Labour and Unionist MPs were returned from Scotland, 35, with one solitary Liberal taking the remaining seat.

With Church of Scotland membership reaching record levels, the 1955 election brought unparalleled success as the party gained 50.1% of the vote and 36 of the 71 seats at Westminster. Often cited as the only party to achieve a majority of the Scottish vote, it should be pointed out that 6 of the Conservative and Unionist MPs were returned that year under the label of 'Liberal Unionist' or 'National Liberal'. And this apparent success was the prelude to a number of events that weakened the appeal of both the Scottish Unionist Party and the Scottish Conservative branch that followed.