1929 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

The 1929 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 30 May 1929,^[1] and all 74 seats in Scotland were contested and resulted in a hung parliament. It stands as the fourth of six instances under the secret ballot, and the first of three under universal suffrage, in which a party has lost on the popular vote but won the highest number (known as "a plurality") of seats versus all other parties – others are 1874, January 1910, December 1910, 1951 and February 1974. In 1929, Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons for the first time. The Liberal Party once again led by ex-Prime Minister David Lloyd George regained some ground lost at the 1924 general election and held the balance of power. The election results in Scotland saw a dramatic swing towards the Labour Party led by Scottish leader Ramsay MacDonald (although at the time he represented a seat in London). These results followed a general swing towards Labour at this election.^[2]

Quick facts All 74 Scottish seats to the House of Commons, First party ...

1929 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

← 1924 30 May 1929 1931 â†’
← outgoing members elected members â†’
All 74 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader Ramsay MacDonald Stanley Baldwin David Lloyd George Party Labour Unionist Liberal Leader since 22 November 1922 23 October 1922 14 October 1926 Seats before 26 seats[a] 38[a] 9[a] Seats won 36[a][b] 22[a] 14[a] Seat change 10[a] 16[a] 5[a] Popular vote 937,300[c] 792,063[c] 407,081[c] Percentage 41.8%[c] 35.3%[c] 18.1%[c] Swing 0.7 pp[c] 5.4 pp[c] 1.5 pp[c]
Results of the 1929 election in Scotland   Unionist   Labour   Liberal   Independent Labour   Scottish Prohibition Party

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The general election was the first in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote (owing to the Representation of the People Act 1928). Women over 30, with some property qualifications, had been able to vote since the 1918 general election, but the 1929 poll was the first general election with universal suffrage for adults over 21, which was then the age of majority.

Scotland was allocated 74 seats in the House of Commons, with 71 territorial seats (32 burgh constituencies and 38 county constituencies).^[d] There was also one university constituency, which elected an additional 3 members using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method.^[3] As voters in university constituencies voted under a different system, and in addition to their territorial vote, the results are compiled separately.

Neil Maclean was elected as member for Glasgow Govan standing under the "Independent Labour" label, but would subsequently go on to take the Labour whip in Parliament.^[4] Edwin Scrymgeour, standing for the Scottish Prohibition Party, retained his Dundee seat with an increased majority. All other seats were won by official candidates for the three major parties. The election was the first general election in which the National Party of Scotland (a forerunner of the Scottish National Party) stood candidates.