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 ...

for the

United Kingdom House of Commons The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the upper house, the House of Lords, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. The House of Commons is an elected body consisting of 650 mem ...

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 Hamilto ...

on Wednesday 31 May 1978. It was caused by the death of the incumbent Labour Party

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

Alex Wilson on 23 March of that year. Within days of Wilson's death, ''

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 ...

'' described the by-election as 'the biggest battle the Government has faced in Scotland since the last General Election'. The SNP, which had previously won the seat in a by-election in 1967, were reported to see the contest as an important test of where political opinion in Scotland stood. The SNP's prospective candidate,

Margo MacDonald Margo Symington MacDonald (''née'' Aitken; 19 April 1943 – 4 April 2014) was a Scottish people, Scottish politician, teacher and Television presenter, broadcaster. She was the Scottish National Party (SNP) Member of Parliament (United Kingdo ...

, had a high profile as a former MP and had been working in the constituency for three years. There was also initial uncertainty as to whom Labour would select as a candidate. Wilson's death was unexpected and it had been assumed he would fight the seat at the next general election. John Maxton, nephew of James Maxton, who lived in the constituency, was suggested as a possibility, but he had already been selected to fight Glasgow Cathcart for Labour at the next election. As the opening game of the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

was on Thursday 1 June, the by-election was held one day earlier, on the Wednesday. All by-elections since then have been held on a Thursday. The Labour candidate was George Robertson, who defeated SNP candidate Margo MacDonald, with an increased majority. It was one of a series of significant Labour victories over the SNP in 1978 which halted their rise at that time.

References

External links

Report on the by-election
by Thames TV Hamilton by-election 1970s elections in Scotland Politics of South Lanarkshire Hamilton by-election By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Scottish constituencies Hamilton by-election {{Scotland-UK-Parl-by-election-stub

See also

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