Glasgow Gorbals (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow Gorbals
Former Burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	City of Glasgow
1918–1974
Number of members	One
Replaced by	Glasgow Queen's Park, Glasgow Govan[1]

Glasgow Gorbals was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Glasgow. From 1918 until 1974, it returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post system.

Boundaries

1950-1955: The County of the City of Glasgow wards of Gorbals and Hutchesontown, and part of Govanhill ward.

1955-1974: The County of the City of Glasgow wards of Gorbals and Hutchesontown, and parts of Govanhill and Kingston wards.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member [2]	Party
	1918	George Nicoll Barnes	Coalition Labour
	1922	George Buchanan	Labour
	1931		Ind. Labour Party
	1939		Labour Party
	1948 by-election	Alice Cullen	Labour
	1969 by-election	Frank McElhone	Labour
Feb 1974		constituency abolished: see Glasgow Queen's Park

Election results

Elections in the 1970s

General Election 1970: Glasgow Gorbals[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank McElhone	10,260	69.3	-3.8
	Conservative	William Shearer	3,071	20.8	-2.0
	SNP	Tom Brady	1,089	7.4	N/A
	Communist	John Kay	376	2.5	-1.6
Majority			7,189	48.6	-1.6
Turnout				59.7	-2.0
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

Glasgow Gorbals by-election, 1969[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Frank McElhone	7,834
	SNP	Tom Brady	3,671		N/A
	Conservative	William Shearer	2,732
	Communist	John Kay	361
	Workers (Scotland)	Matthew Lygate	72
Majority			4,163
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1966: Glasgow Gorbals[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	14,453	73.1	+1.7
	Conservative	W. C. Hunter	4,513	22.8	-0.2
	Communist	M. A. Hunter	819	4.1	-1.5
Majority			9,940	50.2	+1.8
Turnout				61.7	-2.8
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1964: Glasgow Gorbals[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	16,931	71.4	+8.1
	Unionist	W. C. Hunter	5,455	23.0	-7.8
	Communist	M. A. Hunter	1,339	5.6	-0.3
Majority			11,476	48.4	+15.8
Turnout				64.5	-3.7
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General Election 1959: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	20,731	63.3
	Unionist	W. C. Hunter	10,072	30.8
	Communist	Peter Kerrigan	1,932	5.9
Majority			10,659	32.6
Turnout				68.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1955: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	22,567	61.2
	Unionist	W. B. Thomson	11,839	32.1
	Communist	Peter Kerrigan	2,491	6.8
Majority			10,728	29.1
Turnout				65.2
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1951: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	25,288	61.8
	Unionist	J. A. Young	13,069	32.0
	Communist	Peter Kerrigan	2,553	6.2
Majority			12,219	29.9
Turnout				76.1
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1950: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	24,010	58.0	N/A
	Unionist	J. A. Young	13,013	31.5
	Communist	Peter Kerrigan	2,426	5.9	N/A
	Anti-Partition	W. McGuinness	1,920	4.6	N/A
Majority			10.997	26.6
Turnout				76.8
	Labour hold		Swing

Elections in the 1940s

Glasgow Gorbals by-election, 1948
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Alice Cullen	13,706		N/A
	Unionist	W. Roxburgh	7,181
	Communist	Peter Kerrigan	4,233		N/A
Majority
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing	N/A

General Election 1945: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Buchanan	21,073	80.0
	Unionist	Sir Ian Auld Mactaggart	5,269	20.0
Majority			15,804	60.0
Turnout				56.9
	Labour gain from Ind. Labour Party		Swing

Elections in the 1930s

General Election 1935: Glasgow Gorbals [7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Labour Party	George Buchanan	22,860
	Unionist	M. Bloch	5,824
	Labour	Alexander Burnett	1,786
	Ind. Labour Party hold		Swing

General Election 1931: Glasgow Gorbals [8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Ind. Labour Party	George Buchanan	19,278
	Unionist	M. Bloch	11,264
	Communist	Harry McShane	2,626
	Ind. Labour Party hold		Swing

Elections in the 1920s

General Election 1929: Glasgow Gorbals [9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Buchanan	25,134	74.8
	Unionist	Sir Maurice Bloch	8,457	25.2
Majority			16,677	49.6
Turnout			33,591
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1924: Glasgow Gorbals [10]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Buchanan	19,480
	Unionist	Robert McLellan	10,092

General Election 1923: Glasgow Gorbals [11]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Buchanan	17,211
	Unionist	Robert McLellan	8,392		n/a
Majority
Turnout
	Labour hold		Swing

General Election 1922: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Buchanan	16,478	54.5
	National Liberal	J.E. Harper	8,276	27.4	n/a
	Independent Communist	John Maclean	4,027	13.3
	Liberal	Francis John Robertson	1,456	4.8	n/a
Majority			8,202	27.1
Turnout			30,237
	Labour gain from Coalition Labour		Swing

Elections in the 1910s

General Election 1918: Glasgow Gorbals
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Coalition Labour	George Nicoll Barnes	14,347
	Labour	John Maclean	7,436
	Coalition Labour gain from Labour		Swing

References

1. Statutory Instrument 1970 No. 1680 (section Two) The Parliamentary Constituencies (Scotland) Order 1970 (Coming into force 25 November 1970)
2. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 2)
3. UK General Election results: 1970
4. 1969 - 70 By Elections
5. UK General Election results: March 1966
6. UK General Election results: October 1964
7. Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
8. Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
9. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918-1949, FWS Craig
10. Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanac, 1927
11. The Times, 8 December 1923