1964 Rutherglen by-election facts for kids

A by-election is a special election held to fill a vacant seat in a parliament or other assembly. This one happened for the area called Rutherglen in the House of Commons (which is like the main meeting place for UK politicians). It took place on 14 May 1964, not long before the big general election that year.

The Labour Party won this election, taking the seat from the Conservatives. The winning candidate for Labour was Gregor Mackenzie. This was an important win because, unlike some by-election victories, Labour managed to keep this seat in the next general election. Rutherglen then became a very safe Labour area, and Mackenzie served as its Member of Parliament (MP) until 1987. The Conservative candidate who lost, Iain Sproat, later became an MP for other areas like Aberdeen South and Harwich. Interestingly, the Scottish National Party chose not to take part in this election, even though their usual rule was to compete in all Scottish by-elections.

Why This Election Was Important

This by-election in Rutherglen was one of four special elections held on the same day. The others were in Bury St Edmunds, Devizes, and Winchester. In all these places, the seat was being defended by a candidate from the ruling Conservative government.

Since a general election was coming up later that year, people watched these by-election results closely. They were seen as a clue to what might happen in the bigger election. Many felt that how many people voted (called voter turnout) would be very important. For example, the Conservative candidate Sproat's team had 1,000 party helpers and 300 cars ready to encourage people to vote on election day. The Glasgow Herald newspaper even thought Sproat could win if more than 80% of people voted.

The Election Results

Here are the official results from the Rutherglen by-election in 1964:

What Happened After the Election

The election result showed a big change in voter support, called a "swing," of 7.6% away from the government. While the Conservatives managed to keep their seat in Winchester, there was an even larger swing of 8.5% against them there.

The Glasgow Herald newspaper thought the Rutherglen result was very important. The Conservatives had won this seat in 1951 when they had only a small overall lead in Parliament. Also, changes in voter support were usually less noticeable in Scotland than in the rest of the UK. The newspaper suggested that if these results were repeated in the general election, the Labour Party could win with a large majority of about 120 seats.

An editorial in The Glasgow Herald the day after the election said that while the Conservatives holding Devizes might suggest their luck was improving in England, the Rutherglen result was "a rank bad one" for the party. It meant that the Conservatives were not getting stronger in Scotland. The newspaper also pointed out that there had already been a swing towards Labour in Scotland in the 1959 general election, which was different from the trend across the UK. The Rutherglen result suggested Labour was gaining even more support.

The Herald argued that the Conservatives still had a chance to improve their position in Scotland before the general election, which was expected in October. But they needed to think more broadly about Scotland and present their ideas better to show the good things the government had done.

A day later, another editorial was more negative about the Conservatives' chances, especially in Scotland. It said the Rutherglen result "marks another stage of a Conservative decline in industrial Scotland," which had started even before the 1959 general election. It also disagreed with the idea that Sproat lost because he was an inexperienced candidate. The newspaper argued that any weaknesses of a candidate should be blamed on those in the party who chose and advised them. It concluded that the Rutherglen defeat "should at least shake the Scottish Conservatives out of the assumption that things could hardly get worse."

Gregor Mackenzie, the Labour winner, said that the "positive swing to Labour" meant the seat was no longer a close contest. He believed the result would "bound to stand" in the upcoming general election. On the other hand, Alec Douglas-Home, the Prime Minister at the time, wrote a letter to Sproat saying he was sure Sproat would win the seat back for the Conservatives in the autumn. However, Mackenzie's prediction turned out to be right, as he easily held the seat in the general election held in October.