North Lanarkshire by-election, 1929

The Lanarkshire North by-election, 1929 was a parliamentary by-election held in the United Kingdom on 21 March 1929 for the House of Commons constituency of North Lanarkshire in Scotland.

History

General Election, 29 October 1924 Electorate: 32,194

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Sir Alexander Sprot	13,880	53.9
	Labour	Joseph Sullivan	11,852	46.1
Majority			2,028	7.8
Turnout				79.9
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

Candidates

• The Unionists selected 29-year-old Lord Scone to defend the seat. He was the son of Lord Mansfield. A graduate of Oxford University, he had served in the Black Watch. He was standing for parliament for the first time.
• The Labour Party needed to select a new candidate as their last candidate, the former MP, Joseph Sullivan, had been elected at the Bothwell by-election, 1926. Sullivan had been a prominent figure in the Lanarkshire Miners Association and local Labour Party would have liked to choose another miners representative. However, they settled on Miss Jennie Lee, a teacher from Fife and a graduate from Edinburgh University. She was standing for parliament for the first time.
• The local Liberal Association selected Miss Elizabeth Mitchell as their candidate. She had contested Lanark at the 1924 General Election. She was the daughter of a former sheriff of Lanarkshire and a member of Lanarkshire Education Authority.

Campaign

On 1 March, nationally, Liberal leader, David Lloyd George launched the Liberal programme for the upcoming General Election, titled We Can Conquer Unemployment.

Result

North Lanarkshire by-election, 1929 Electorate 33,215

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jennie Lee	15,711	57.5
	Unionist	Lord Scone	9,133	33.4
	Liberal	Elizabeth B Mitchell	2,488	9.1
Majority			6,578	24.1
Turnout				82.3
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

Aftermath

General Election, 30 May 1929 Electorate: 45,227

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Jennie Lee	19,884
	Unionist	Lord Scone	15,680
Majority
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

References

• British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, compiled and edited by F.W.S. Craig (The Macmillan Press 1979)