On Thursday 6 December 1923, the 1923 United Kingdom general election was held in Scotland, to elect all 615 members of the House of Commons, with 74 seats being in Scotland.As per Boundaries of Parliamentary Constituencies 1885-1972 (), F. W. S. Craig 1972, except Graig omits indication that the burgh of Renfrew was not entirely within the county of the same name 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 led to an overall drop in seats for the Conservative Party, with the Liberal Party and Labour taking seats across the United Kingdom. The election saw the formation of the first Labour Government under Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, with the support of the reunited Liberal Party under H. H. Asquith; however, the Labour Government would only survive a year, owing to a vote of confidence the following year.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1923 general election in Scotland, excluding those in the Combined Scottish Universities constituency.

Affiliation CandidatesScottish Liberal Party 59Unionist Party 52Labour Party 45 Communist Party of Great Britain 4Co-operative Party 3Independent Labour 2Scottish Prohibition Party 1Miners' Reform Union 1Total 167

Analysis

The election saw the Labour Party make further gains following their success in the previous election in 1922, winning 34 seats in total. Labour won Kirkcaldy Burghs, Glasgow Partick, Kilmarnock and Berwick and Haddington from the Liberals, though lost Stirling and Falkirk to the Liberals. The Co-operative party, under the Labour Party Whip, won Glasgow Patrick with candidate Andrew Young. It retained its other seat in Glasgow Tradeston.

The Liberals, who had reunited following the split caused by the continuation of the Wartime coalition, came in second on 23 seats, down five from the previous combined total for their two former factions.

The Unionists gained a seat overall, finishing third on 16 seats. The party lost Perth and Edinburgh North to the Liberals, and Dunbartonshire, Lanark and Midlothian and Peebles Northern to the Labour Party. However, the Unionist Party won Motherwell from the Communist Party of Great Britain, Glasgow Cathcart from the Labour Party, and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, Penrith and Cockermouth, Moray and Nairn and Kinross and Western Perthshire from the reunited Liberal Party.

Although Labour won a plurality of seats in Scotland, when combined with results from across the UK, the Conservatives (with whom the Unionists aligned at Westminster) led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won a plurality in the House of Commons. The conservatives were however, well short of majority, with both Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. H. Asquith's reunited Liberal Party gaining enough seats to produce a hung parliament. MacDonald formed the first Labour government with tacit support from the Liberals. Rather than trying to bring the Liberals back into government, Asquith's motivation for permitting Labour to enter power was that he hoped they would prove to be incompetent and quickly lose support. Being a minority, MacDonald's government only lasted ten months and another general election was held in October 1924.

The Scottish Prohibition Party retained its only seat in Dundee.

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 (%)   Labour (Total) 34 7 2 5 45.9 32 6 2 4 43.2 2 1 0 1 2.8   Liberal 23 3 8 5 31.1   Unionist 16 6 5 1 21.6   Scottish Prohibition 1 0 0 1.4   Communist 0 0 1 1 — Total 74

County and burgh constituency results

Below is a table summarising the constituency results of the 1923 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 (%)   Labour (Total) 34 7 2 5 47.9 532,450 35.9 3.7 32 6 2 4 45.1 503,289 34.0 3.6 2 1 0 1 2.8 29,161 1.9 0.1   Liberal 22 3 8 5 31.0 422,995 28.4 10.8   Unionist 14 6 5 1 19.7 468,526 31.6 6.5   Communist 0 0 1 1 — 39,448 2.4 1.0   Scottish Prohibition 1 0 0 1.4 25,753 0.9 0.1   Independent Labour 0 colspan="3" — 5,696 0.4  Miners' Reform Union 0 colspan="3" — 6,459 0.4 Total 71 0 100.0 1,501,327 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 2,250,826 67.9 2.5

Combined Scottish Universities result The Combined Scottish Universities elected an additional 3 members to the house using the STV voting method. Note that there was no election as only three candidates stood for election.

See also 1923 United Kingdom general election in England 1923 United Kingdom general election in Wales 1923 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

Notes

References