The 1962 West Lothian by-election was a UK Parliamentary

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 ...

held for the constituency of

West Lothian West Lothian ( sco, Wast Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the A ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

on 14 June 1962, following the death of sitting MP, John Taylor. The by-election saw the election of Tam Dalyell, who went on to become a long-standing and controversial MP. Additionally, 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 th ...

had a surprisingly strong showing—their candidate, William Wolfe, became the party leader for several years. Candidates from the Liberal and Conservative parties both lost their deposits. It was the first deposit lost by the Conservatives in Scotland since 1920.

Election

References

Politics of West Lothian 1962 elections in the United Kingdom By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Scottish constituencies 1962 in Scotland 1960s elections in Scotland {{Scotland-UK-Parl-by-election-stub