The

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

by-election in

Lanarkshire Lanarkshire, also called the County of Lanark ( gd, Siorrachd Lannraig; sco, Lanrikshire), is a historic county, lieutenancy area and registration county in the central Lowlands of Scotland. Lanarkshire is the most populous county in Scotlan ...

, Scotland, was held on 2 November 1967. It saw a surprise victory for 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 ...

candidate

Winnie Ewing Winifred Margaret Ewing (' Woodburn; born 10 July 1929) is a Scottish politician, lawyer and figure within the independence movement who served as President of the Scottish National Party from 1987 to 2005. Ewing was a Member of the Scottish P ...

. The SNP took 46% of the vote in a constituency which they had not even contested at the 1966 general election held the previous year, and gained the seat from the Labour Party with a swing of nearly 38%. Ewing did not retain the seat at the following general election, but the SNP have been continuously represented 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. ...

ever since. A by-election was called after the former

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 ...

MP,

Tom Fraser Thomas Fraser (18 February 1911 – 21 November 1988) was Scottish coal miner and trade unionist, who was a Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the Hamilton constituency between 1943 and 1967. Life He was the son of Thomas and Mary Fra ...

, resigned in order to take up the position as head of the

North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board The North of Scotland Hydro-Electric Board (1943–1990) was founded to design, construct and manage hydroelectricity projects in the Highlands of Scotland. It is regarded as one of the major achievements of Scottish politician Thomas Johnston, w ...

. The constituency had been a

safe seat A safe seat is an electoral district (constituency) in a legislative body (e.g. Congress, Parliament, City Council) which is regarded as fully secure, for either a certain political party, or the incumbent representative personally or a combinat ...

for Labour, who had taken over two-thirds of the vote there in every general election from 1945 to 1966, when only the Conservatives had stood against them. In that time, the SNP had been a peripheral movement in

Scottish politics The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a home nation. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Sco ...

. They had taken only 5% of the vote across Scotland in 1966, having stood candidates in 23 out of 71 seats. In the 1950s, they had never stood more than five candidates or taken more than 1% of the Scottish vote in general elections. However, Hamilton was not the first Westminster seat to be won by the SNP; the party had won a short-lived victory at the

1945 Motherwell by-election The Motherwell by-election was held on 12 April 1945, following the death of Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Motherwell (UK Parliament constituency), Motherwell, James Walker ( ...

. In the years before Ewing's victory, there had been other breakthroughs by nationalist parties in Britain – including

Gwynfor Evans Gwynfor Richard Evans (1 September 1912 – 21 April 2005) was a Welsh politician, lawyer and author. He was President of the Welsh political party Plaid Cymru for thirty-six years and was the first Member of Parliament to represent it at Westmi ...

' similarly groundbreaking victory for

Plaid Cymru Plaid Cymru ( ; ; officially Plaid Cymru – the Party of Wales, often referred to simply as Plaid) is a centre-left to left-wing, Welsh nationalist political party in Wales, committed to Welsh independence from the United Kingdom. Plaid wa ...

at the

1966 Carmarthen by-election The Carmarthen by-election, was held in Carmarthen, Wales, on 14 July 1966. The contest was significant in that it resulted in the election of Gwynfor Evans, the first ever Plaid Cymru Member of Parliament. Plaid Cymru's victory in the Carmarthen ...

, a big advance for the SNP at the

1967 Glasgow Pollok by-election The Glasgow Pollok by-election of 9 March 1967 was held after the death of Labour MP (MP) Alex Garrow: ...

, and SNP gains in local elections, including becoming the largest party in local government in

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

. The SNP's leadership merely told Ewing to: "try to come a good second in order to encourage the members". "As ever," Ewing later wrote, "I overdid it, and as a result my life changed for ever." After her victory was declared, Ewing famously said to the crowd outside "Stop the World, Scotland wants to get on." On the day of the election it was reported that Labour were strong favourites to win the seat with bookmakers, who made them 10 to 1 on to win the seat, and that Labour candidate Alex Wilson had indicated the previous day that he was more confident than ever of victory. Historian

Tom Devine Sir Thomas Martin Devine (born 30 July 1945) is a Scottish academic and author, who specializes in the history of Scotland. He is known for his overviews of modern Scottish history. He is an advocate of the total history approach to the hi ...

describes the 1967 Hamilton by-election as "the most sensational by-election result in Scotland since 1945" and

Isobel Lindsay Isobel Lindsay (born 1943) is a former sociology lecturer, known as a Scottish nationalist and peace activist. Born in Hamilton, Lindsay studied at Hamilton Academy and at the University of Glasgow, then was based at Strathclyde University, init ...

called a "watershed" moment in

Scottish political history The politics of Scotland operate within the constitution of the United Kingdom, of which Scotland is a home nation. Scotland is a democracy, being represented in both the Scottish Parliament and the Parliament of the United Kingdom since the Sco ...

Gerry Hassan Gerry Hassan (born 1964) is a Scottish writer, commentator and academic. He is Professor of Social Change at Glasgow Caledonian University, having previously worked at the University of Dundee and the University of the West of Scotland, where ...

similarly describes it as being a pivotal moment in

.Gerry Hassan, "The Making of the Modern SNP: From Protest to Power", pp. 1 – 18, in ''The Modern SNP: From Protest to Power'', edited by Gerry Hassan, Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh, p. 1

References

See also