On Tuesday 27 October 1931, the 1931 United Kingdom general election was held in Scotland, to elect all 615 members of the House of Commons, with 74 seats being in Scotland. 71 seats (32 burgh constituencies and 38 county constituencies) represented territorial constituencies. There was also one university constituency, which elected an additional 3 members using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method.

The election saw massive gains for the Unionists across the country, with the party winning nearly 70 per cent of all Scottish seats. The parties forming the National Government together won 63.7 per cent of the vote, and 90.5 per cent of the seats in Scotland. In contrast the Labour Party, which had been the largest party in Scotland following the 1929 general election (where it had won 41.8 per cent of the Scottish vote), was relegated into fourth place within just two years. Across the United Kingdom, the National Government coalition won 67 per cent of the popular vote and over 90 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1931 general election in Scotland, excluding those in the Combined Scottish Universities constituency.

Affiliation CandidatesUnionist Party 56Labour Party 45Scottish Liberal Party 14Independent Labour Party 9Liberal National Party 8Communist Party of Great Britain 8National Party of Scotland 5New Party 5Constituency Labour Party 3Scottish Prohibition Party 1National Labour Organisation 1Total 155

Analysis

National Government

The Parties that made up the National Government won a total of 67 seats at this election in Scotland, including a total of 31 gained seats primarily from the Labour Party. However, the newly formed Liberal National Party also internally won seats by defects from the Scottish Liberal Party, which was within a national affiliation with the Liberal Party in the National Government.

The Liberal National Party won Dunfermline Burghs from the Labour Party; however, within the National Government coalition, it won Inverness, Ross and Cromarty, Western Isles, Montrose Burghs, Fife East, Greenock and Leith from the Liberal Party. Furthermore, the Unionist Party, within a national affiliation with the Conservative Party within the National Coalition, won Aberdeenshire West and Kincardine and Galloway from the Scottish Liberals. Contrary to the losses, The Liberal Party won Paisley, Edinburgh East as well as one of the two seats in Dundee from Labour. The Liberal Party also retained its seat in the Combined Scottish Universities constituency. The Liberal National Party therefore won a total of eight seats at the election (which were all candidates that stood for the party in Scotland), with the Scottish Liberals also holding eight.

The Unionist Party made further gains from Labour. These were Aberdeen North, Stirling and Falkirk, Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire, Stirlingshire West, Fife West, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Dunbartonshire, Lanark, Partick, North Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire West, Maryhill, Motherwell, Camlachie, Bothwell, Coatbridge, Springburn, Rutherglen, Tradeston, South Ayrshire, Edinburgh West, Edinburgh Central, Midlothian South and Peebles, Linlithgow and Berwick and Haddington. It also took the other other of two seats in Dundee from the Scottish Prohibition Party. The Unionists also retained their two seats in the Combined Scottish Universities Constituency.

The newly formed National Labour under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald also took one seat in Scotland. This was Kilmarnock wherein the sitting MP, Craigie Aitchison, defected from the Labour Party and won the seat for National Labour in this election.

Labour Opposition

Following the election, the Labour Party appeared to teeter on the edge of the electoral abyss in Scotland. The Labour Party itself in Scotland managed to win three seats under its officially endorsed candidates. Two candidates, David Kirkwood in Dumbarton Burghs and George Buchanan in Glasgow Gorbals, re-contested and won their seats; however, both were members of the Independent Labour Party and endorsed by the Constituency Labour Party at this election, rather than being the official candidates of the Labour Party. A further two candidates, James Maxton in Glasgow Bridgeton and John McGovern in Glasgow Shettleston re-contested and won their seats, but as members and representing the Independent Labour Party. John McGovern also won his electoral race against an official Labour candidate.

Each of these four represented losses for the official Labour Party, but stood as party of the Labour Opposition after election. However, the Independent Labour Party increasingly moved apart from Labour, and ultimately dissociating from the party in March 1932. The ILP had dominated the Labour movement in Scotland since 1918, dominating community based activism, and essentially forming the Labour Party in Scotland. This had ultimately served to undermine the organisational growth of the Labour Party in Scotland.

The Labour Party, however, gained Glasgow Govan. Neil Maclean who had won the seat under the label of Independent Labour re-contested and won the seat again, this time winning as the official Labour candidate. This was one of only two gains for the Labour Party across the United Kingdom in 1931. The combined losses from the parties within the National Government and the losses from internal independent Labour candidates, Labour was reduced to holding just three seats in its own right, but carried within the Labour Opposition a slightly larger seven.

Seat summary

Below is a table summarising the total number of seats, gains and losses for each party in both the territorial county and burgh constituencies and the Combined Scottish Universities constituency.

+PartySeats Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%)   National Government (Total) 67 colspan="2" 31 90.5 50 28 0 28 67.6   Liberal National 8 colspan="2" 8 10.8 8 3 9 6 10.8 1 colspan="2" 1 1.4   Labour Opposition (Total) 7 1 30 29 9.5 3 1 34 33 4.1 2 colspan="2" 2 2.7   Constituency Labour 2 colspan="2" 2 2.7   Scottish Prohibition 0 0 1 1 —  Other 0 0 1 1 — Total 74

County and burgh constituency results

Below is a table summarising the constituency results of the 1931 general election in Scotland, excluding the result in the Combined Scottish Universities constituency.

+PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%)   National Government (Total) 64 colspan="2" 31 90.1 1,385,385 64.0 48 28 0 28 67.6 1,056,768 49.5 13.6 7 3 9 6 9.9 205,384 8.6 9.5   Liberal National 8 colspan="2" 8 11.3 101,430 4.9 1 colspan="2" 1 1.4 21,803 1.0   Labour Opposition (Total) 7 1 30 29 9.9 696,248 32.6 9.7 3 1 34 33 4.2 525,765 24.7 17.6 2 colspan="2" 2 2.8 127,331 5.9   Constituency Labour 2 colspan="2" 2 2.8 43,152 2.0  Communist 0 0 0 — 35,618 1.4 0.3  Scottish Prohibition 0 0 1 1 — 32,229 0.7 0.4  NPS 0 0 0 — 20,954 1.0 0.8  New Party 0 colspan="3" — 3,895 0.2  Other 0 0 1 1 — 0 0.0 Total 71 0 100.0 2,174,329 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 2,992,433 77.4 4.2

Popular vote

Parliament seats

Combined Scottish Universities result

Notes

See also 1931 United Kingdom general election in England 1931 United Kingdom general election in Wales 1931 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

References