There was a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

for the constituency of

Rutherglen Rutherglen (, sco, Ruglen, gd, An Ruadh-Ghleann) is a town in South Lanarkshire, Scotland, immediately south-east of the city of Glasgow, from its centre and directly south of the River Clyde. Having existed as a Lanarkshire burgh in its own ...

in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

on 14 May 1964, not long before the 1964 general election. It was a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

gain from the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

, the candidate was

Gregor Mackenzie James Gregor Mackenzie (15 November 1927 – 4 May 1992) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life Mackenzie was educated at the Royal Technical College and the University of Glasgow. He became a sales manager and a councillor on Glasgo ...

. Unlike some by-election gains, it was held at the next general election and eventually became a fairly safe Labour seat, with Mackenzie serving as MP until 1987. The defeated Conservative candidate,

Iain Sproat Iain MacDonald Sproat (8 November 1938 – 29 September 2011) was a British Conservative Member of Parliament (MP). He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalen College, Oxford. He worked as a publisher and journalist. Parliamentary caree ...

, later served as the MP for Aberdeen South and Harwich. The

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; sco, Scots National Pairty, gd, Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence from ...

decided not to contest the election, even though it was party policy to contest all Scottish by-elections.David McKie and Chris Cook, ''The decade of disillusion: British politics in the sixties'', p.87

Background

The by-election was one of four (the others being Bury St Edmunds,

Devizes Devizes is a market town and civil parish in Wiltshire, England. It developed around Devizes Castle, an 11th-century Norman architecture, Norman castle, and received a charter in 1141. The castle was besieged during the Anarchy, a 12th-century ...

and

Winchester Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...

being held on the same day in which the seat was being defended by a candidate supporting the incumbent

Conservative government Conservative or Tory government may refer to: Canada In Canadian politics, a Conservative government may refer to the following governments administered by the Conservative Party of Canada or one of its historical predecessors: * 1st Canadian Mi ...

. With a general election due later in the year, the results were anticipated with interest as a pointer to what might happen at the election. It was felt voter turnout could be crucial and Sproat's agent,

F. W. S. Craig Frederick Walter Scott Craig (10 December 1929 – 23 March 1989) was a Scottish psephologist and compiler of the standard reference books covering United Kingdom Parliamentary election results. He originally worked in public relations, compilin ...

had arranged for 1000 party workers and 300 cars to be active on polling day. ''The

Glasgow Herald ''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in ...

'' felt that Sproat could win if turnout was over 80%.

Result

Aftermath

The result showed a considerable swing of 7.6% against the government. While it held Winchester, there was an even larger swing of 8.5% against the Conservatives there. ''The Glasgow Herald'' considered the result in Rutherglen significant as the Conservatives had won the seat in 1951 when they had a small overall majority and swings were usually less pronounced in Scotland than the rest of the UK. The newspaper suggested that the results were repeated at a general election the Labour Party would have a majority of about 120 seats. An editorial in ''The Glasgow Herald'' the day after the election said that while the Conservatives holding Devizes perhaps suggested the party's fortunes were improving in England, the Rutherglen result was "a rank bad one" for the party, which did not suggest that any recovery in their position was taking place in Scotland. Indeed it further noted that there been a swing to Labour in Scotland in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

against the UK-wide trend, and the result suggested Labour was further improving upon this. The ''Herald's'' editorial argued that it was still possible for the Conservatives to improve their position in Scotland before the general election, which was expected to be held in October, but that the party needed to widen its Scottish horizons and improve its presentation to show the economic and political improvements the government had carried out. A further editorial the following day was more pessimistic about the Conservatives chances, particularly in Scotland. It argued the Rutherglen result "marks another stage of a Conservative decline in industrial Scotland" which had started before the 1959 general election. It also rejected the idea that Sproat's defeat could be blamed on him being an inexperienced candidate who got out of his depth, arguing that the shortcomings of a candidate should be blamed on those in the party who had selected 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." Mackenzie claimed the "positive swing to Labour" meant that the seat could not be considered marginal and the result was "bound to stand" at the forthcoming general election. In contrast Alec Douglas-Home wrote in a letter to Sproat that he was sure he would regain the seat for the Conservatives in the autumn. Ultimately Mackenzie's assessment proved to be correct with him easily holding the seat at the next contest in October.

References

{{Westminster by-elections in Scotland 1950-present Rutherglen by-election 1960s elections in Scotland Rutherglen by-election Rutherglen by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Scottish constituencies Rutherglen