SHARP REVERSE AT THE POLLS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31316, 11 March 1967, Page 13

SHARP REVERSE AT THE POLLS

Labour Loses Seat; Majorities Drop

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON, March 10.

The Labour Government today smarted under a sharp protest from voters against harsh economic policies and its failure to provide promised social reforms.

In by-elections in towns in Scotland, Wales and England it lost one seat to the Conservatives, and saw its majority reduced drastically in the other two constituencies.

The electoral rebuff came just a year after Labour’s sweeping re-election in a General Election, and coincided with an outbreak of bitter internal strife on party discipline and Government policies.

The Government has now lost two seats in the Commons since the General Elections —one to the Conservatives and another, last summer, to the Welsh Nationalists.

Its majority in the 630-seat House has been cut from 97 to 93.

The Conservative Party chairman, Mr Edward du Cann, hailed the results as a clear vote of no confidence in the Government. But Labour’s general secretary, Mr Len Williams, noted that the party’s triple set-back was caused more by the success of minority groups than by any direct switch of allegiance to the Conservatives. Conservative morale was stimuated by the result at Pollok—a traditional Conservative seat won by Labour in the 1964 and 1966 General Elections. Poll Ratings The Conservatives have lost 15 seats in Scotland since 1959, and the party has only just begun to show any rise in national opinion-poll ratings. The outcome at Pollok seemed uncertain throughout the campaign, and

Labour suffered almost a bigger set-back at Rhondda West —one of their safest seats—where a Welsh Nationalist collected more than 10,000 votes and slashed Labour’s 1966 majority of 16,888 to a marginal 2306. Third Contest The third contest—in the Midlands industrial town of Nuneaton saw Labour’s majority plunge from 11,403 to 4054. In all three areas Labour is thought to have suffered from a change of heart by its traditional trade union supporters, now hit by soaring unemployment figures totalling more than 600,000 throughout Britain. In Rhondda the unemploy-

ment total is 9 per cent of the work force—three times the national average—while Nuneaton has been hit by a recession in the car industry, and Glasgow by similar cuts in shipbuilding.

But Mr Wilson need not call fresh General Elections until the spring of 1971, and his policies are aimed at bringing about an economic resurgence that could transform the political picture before then. Party Standings The present state of the parties in the House of Commons is: Labour 359, Conservatives 252, Liberals 12, Welsh Nationalist one. Republican Labour one, the Speaker and two deputies (all non-voting) three, vacant (both Conservative seats) two; majority 93. Late editions of British morning newspapers today boldly headlined the three results as staggering and shattering blows for Mr Wilson.