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West Lothian was a Scottish county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 to 1983. Its area corresponded to the Council area of West Lothian. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post voting system.
| West Lothian | |
|---|---|
| Former county constituency for the House of Commons | |
| Subdivisions of Scotland | Linlithgowshire |
| 1950–1983 | |
| Seats | One |
| Created from | Linlithgowshire |
| Replaced by | Linlithgow Livingston Falkirk East[1] |
The constituency is best known for its third and final MP, Tam Dalyell of the Labour Party, whose concerns about Scottish devolution were labelled "the West Lothian question".
West Lothian was created for the 1950 general election, partly replacing the previous Linlithgowshire constituency.
With effect from the 1983 general election, it became two different constituencies: Linlithgow and Livingston.
| Election | Member[2] | Party | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | George Mathers | Labour | later Baron Mathers | |
| 1951 | John Taylor | Labour | ||
| 1962 by-election | Tam Dalyell | Labour | subsequently MP for Linlithgow | |
| 1983 | constituency abolished: see Linlithgow | |||
Elections in the 1950s
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | George Mathers | 27,236 | 60.61 | ' | |
| Unionist | W M Younger | 15,999 | 35.60 | ||
| Scottish Self-Government | Maxwell Hynd | 1,039 | 2.31 | ||
| Communist | J Borrowman | 664 | 1.48 | ||
| Majority | 11,237 | 25.01 | |||
| Turnout | 44,938 | 79.76 | |||
| Registered electors | 56,339 | ||||
| Labour win (new seat) | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 28,906 | 60.52 | −0.09 | |
| Unionist | Humphrey Atkins | 18,854 | 39.48 | +3.88 | |
| Majority | 10,052 | 21.04 | −3.97 | ||
| Turnout | 47,760 | 84.89 | +5.13 | ||
| Registered electors | 56,259 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -1.99 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 25,654 | 59.66 | −0.86 | |
| Unionist | William R Grieve | 17,347 | 40.34 | +0.86 | |
| Majority | 8,307 | 19.32 | −1.72 | ||
| Turnout | 43,001 | 75.38 | −9.51 | ||
| Registered electors | 57,045 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -0.86 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | John Taylor | 27,454 | 60.29 | +0.63 | |
| Unionist | W Ian Stewart | 18,083 | 39.71 | −0.63 | |
| Majority | 9,371 | 20.58 | +1.26 | ||
| Turnout | 45,537 | 77.90 | +2.52 | ||
| Registered electors | 58,457 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +0.63 | |||
Elections in the 1960s
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 21,266 | 50.82 | −9.47 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 9,750 | 23.30 | New | |
| Unionist | W. I. Stewart | 4,784 | 11.43 | −28.28 | |
| Liberal | D. Bryce | 4,537 | 10.84 | New | |
| Communist | Gordon McLennan | 1,511 | 3.61 | New | |
| Majority | 11,516 | 27.52 | +6.94 | ||
| Turnout | 41,848 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | ||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 24,933 | 50.32 | −9.97 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 15,087 | 30.45 | N/A | |
| Unionist | RA Gordon Stuart | 8,919 | 18.00 | −21.71 | |
| Communist | Irene Swan | 610 | 1.23 | N/A | |
| Majority | 9,846 | 19.87 | −0.71 | ||
| Turnout | 49,549 | 79.50 | +1.60 | ||
| Registered electors | 62,328 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -20.21 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 26,662 | 52.37 | +2.05 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 17,955 | 35.27 | +4.82 | |
| Conservative | David L MacKinnon | 5,726 | 11.25 | −6.75 | |
| Communist | Irene Swan | 567 | 1.11 | −0.12 | |
| Majority | 8,707 | 17.10 | −2.77 | ||
| Turnout | 50,910 | 79.59 | +0.09 | ||
| Registered electors | 63,967 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -1.39 | |||
Elections in the 1970s
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 29,360 | 52.9 | +0.5 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 15,620 | 28.2 | −7.1 | |
| Conservative | Michael Ancram | 10,048 | 18.1 | +6.9 | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 459 | 0.8 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 13,740 | 24.7 | +7.6 | ||
| Turnout | 55,487 | 76.7 | −2.9 | ||
| Registered electors | 72,366 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +3.8 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 28,112 | 45.3 | −7.6 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 21,690 | 35.0 | +6.8 | |
| Conservative | Alexander Pollock | 11,804 | 19.0 | +0.9 | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 438 | 0.7 | −0.1 | |
| Majority | 6,422 | 10.3 | −14.4 | ||
| Turnout | 62,044 | 80.6 | +3.9 | ||
| Registered electors | 76,946 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -7.2 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 27,687 | 45.3 | 0.0 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 24,997 | 40.9 | +5.9 | |
| Conservative | Anthony Lester | 6,086 | 10.0 | −9.0 | |
| Liberal | Hector MacAulay | 2,083 | 3.4 | New | |
| Communist | Christopher Bett | 247 | 0.4 | −0.3 | |
| Majority | 2,690 | 4.4 | −5.9 | ||
| Turnout | 61,100 | 78.8 | −1.8 | ||
| Registered electors | 77,527 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | -3.0 | |||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Labour | Tam Dalyell | 36,713 | 54.9 | +9.6 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 16,631 | 24.9 | −16.0 | |
| Conservative | John Roderick Whyte | 13,162 | 19.7 | +9.7 | |
| Communist | William Sneddon | 404 | 0.6 | +0.2 | |
| Majority | 20,082 | 30.0 | +25.6 | ||
| Turnout | 66,910 | 78.1 | −0.7 | ||
| Registered electors | 85,645 | ||||
| Labour hold | Swing | +22.8 | |||
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