Conservative Loses Election Deposit

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29851, 18 June 1962, Page 19

Conservative Loses Election Deposit

( N Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LINLITHGOW (Scotland), June 16

The Labour Party retained its Parliamentary seat of West Lothian in a by-election on Friday with an increased majority.

The big surprise of the election was that a Scottish Nationalist ousted both Conservatives and Liberals from second place. The result, declared yesterday, was:

The verdict was a fresh humiliation for the Conserva-

tive Party, whose nominee polled so few votes that he loses the £l5O deposit which all candidates must give as a guarantee of good faith. This is forfeited by all who failed to poll one-eighth of the total votes cast. Both Liberal and Communist candidates also lose their deposits. The Labour Party’s retention of the seat had been widely forecast, and the big vote gained by its nominee was no surprise.

The victor, Mr Tam Dalyell, a schoolteacher, aged 29, is a local man whose family is widely known in south Scotland. The contest reversed the trend of recent by-elections in the poor vote accorded to the Liberals, who in a long succession _of by-elections have capture*! many votes and in one case a strongly held seat from the Conservatives. But it also underlined the continuing slump in the Conservative Party stock with the voters.

Tam Dalyell (Lab.) 21,266 William Wolfe (Scottish Nationalist) 9,750 W. Ian Stewart (Con.) 4.784 David Bryce (Lib.) 4,537 Gordon McLennan (Comm.) 1,511 Labour majority—11,516 votes.