List of UK minor party and independent MPs elected

This is a list of members of the United Kingdom House of Commons who were elected as an independent or as a member of a minor political party.

Excluded are the Speaker, who traditionally stands for re-election without party affiliation, and MPs who were elected from a major party but then defected during a parliamentary term.

Minor party and independent MPs in Great Britain have been rare in recent times - there have been only ten elected since 1950.

Contents

British MPs

In Britain, MP are listed where they were elected as an independent, or for any party except the Conservative Party, the Labour Party, the Liberal Democrats and its forerunners, the Liberal Unionist Party, the National Liberal parties, National Labour, the Scottish National Party or Plaid Cymru.

1950 - present

Election Member of Parliament Constituency Party/Description
2010 Caroline Lucas Brighton Pavilion Green
2006 (b) Dai Davies1 Blaenau Gwent Independent
2005 Richard Taylor 2 Wyre Forest Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern
Peter Law 3 Blaenau Gwent Independent Labour
George Galloway 4 Bethnal Green and Bow RESPECT The Unity Coalition
2001 Richard Taylor 2 Wyre Forest Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern
1997 Martin Bell 5 Tatton Independent
Feb 1974 Dick Taverne 6 Lincoln Democratic Labour
Eddie Milne 7 Blyth Independent Labour
1973 (b) Dick Taverne 6 Lincoln Democratic Labour
1970 S.O. Davies 8 Merthyr Tydfil Independent Labour
1959 David Robertson 9 Caithness and Sutherland Independent Conservative
1950 Capt. John MacLeod 10 Ross and Cromarty Independent Liberal
(b) = by-election
  1. Davies had been the electoral agent of Peter Law in the general election.
  2. Taylor was the nominee of Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern, a party formed around the single issue of keeping the casualty unit at Kidderminster General Hospital. In both the 2001 and 2005 general elections his candidature was not opposed by the Liberal Democrats.
  3. Law was the sitting Labour Member of the Welsh Assembly for Blaenau Gwent who stood for the Westminster Parliament following a dispute over the selection of the official Labour candidate, Maggie Jones, involving an all women shortlist, a process that was opposed by many members and officials in the local party, including the retiring Labour MP Llew Smith.[1]
  4. Galloway was the Labour MP for Glasgow Hillhead from 1987 and then Glasgow Kelvin following name and boundary changes in 1997. In 2003,he was expelled from the Labour Party when a party body found that he had brought the party into disrepute over the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He helped form Respect and challenged incumbent Bethnal Green & Bow Labour MP Oona King who had supported the war.
  5. Bell, a BBC News war reporter, was nominated as a single issue candidate in opposition to the "sleaze" allegations surrounding the sitting Conservative MP for Tatton, Neil Hamilton. Both the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates in support of Bell.
  6. Taverne was the sitting Labour MP for Lincoln who was increasingly at odds with his ever more left-wing local party. In 1973 he was deselected as an official Labour candidate. He resigned from Parliament and fought the ensuing by-election as a Democratic Labour candidate against the official Labour nominee, holding the seat in the February 1974 general election but losing in October 1974.[2]
  7. Milne was the sitting Labour MP for Blyth who was deselected by his local party in disputes surrounding Labour Party corruption in the North East. He stood against the official Labour nominee and won the seat, but lost in the October 1974 general election.[3]
  8. Davies had been the Labour MP for Merthyr Tydfil since 1934 but in the run-up to the 1970 general election he was deselected by his local party on grounds of age. He stood again against the new Labour candidate and won.[4]
  9. Robertson had been an official Conservative MP for the seat since 1950 but resigned the party whip in 1959 in opposition to the Government's Scottish policy and fought the election without a Conservative opponent.[5]
  10. In 1945 and 50, MacLeod was the nominee of the Ross and Cromarty Liberal Association, but this was not connected the Liberal Party nationally. He was a supporter of Winston Churchill and from 1951 became an official National Liberal and Conservative candidate and MP.[6]

1919 - 1950

Election Member of Parliament Constituency Party/Description
1946 (b) James Carmichael Glasgow Bridgeton Independent Labour Party
1945 Ernest Millington Chelmsford Common Wealth Party
Willie Gallacher West Fife Communist Party of Great Britain
Phil Piratin Mile End Communist Party of Great Britain
William Brown Rugby Independent
Henry Wilson Harris Cambridge University Independent
A. P. Herbert Oxford University Independent
William Denis Kendall Grantham Independent
Kenneth Martin Lindsay Combined English Universities Independent
Ernest Gorden Graham Graham-Little London University Independent
John Boyd Orr Combined Scottish Universities Independent
Eleanor Rathbone Combined English Universities Independent
Arthur Salter Oxford University Independent
Daniel Lipson Cheltenham Independent Conservative
John Mackie Galloway Independent Conservative
Denis Nowell Pritt Hammersmith North Independent Labour
James Maxton Glasgow Bridgeton Independent Labour Party
Campbell Stephen Glasgow Camlachie Independent Labour Party
John McGovern Glasgow Shettleston Independent Labour Party
Murdo Macdonald Inverness-shire Independent Liberal
Capt. John MacLeod Ross and Cromarty Independent Liberal
Vernon Bartlett Bridgwater Independent Progressive
John Anderson Combined Scottish Universities National
Andrew Duncan City of London National
1945 (b) Ernest Millington Chelmsford Common Wealth Party
1945 (b) John Boyd Orr Combined Scottish Universities Independent
1944 (b) Hugh McDowall Lawson Skipton Common Wealth Party
1944 (b) Charles Frederick White West Derbyshire Independent
1943 (b) John Eric Loverseed Eddisbury Common Wealth Party
1942 (b) William John Brown Rugby Independent
1942 (b) Tom Driberg Maldon Independent
1942 (b) William Dennis Kendall Grantham Independent
1942 (b) Percy Grigg Cardiff East National
1942 (b) George Leonard Reakes Wallasey Independent
1940 (b) Andrew Duncan City of London National
1940 (b) Cuthbert Morley Headlam Newcastle North Independent Conservative
1940 (b) John Charles Walsham Reith Southampton National
1938 (b) Archibald Vivian Hill Cambridge University Independent Conservative
1938 (b) Vernon Bartlett Bridgwater Independent Progressive
1938 (b) John Anderson Combined Scottish Universities National
1937 (b) Arthur Salter Oxford University Independent
1937 (b) Daniel Lipson Cheltenham Independent Conservative
1937 (b) Thomas Edmund Harvey Combined English Universities Independent Progressive
1935 Willie Gallacher West Fife Communist Party of Great Britain
A. P. Herbert Oxford University Independent
Eleanor Rathbone Combined English Universities Independent
George Buchanan Glasgow Gorbals Independent Labour Party
James Maxton Glasgow Bridgeton Independent Labour Party
John McGovern Glasgow Shettleston Independent Labour Party
Campbell Stephen Glasgow Camlachie Independent Labour Party
Austin Hopkinson Mossley National Independent
Sir Ernest Graham-Little London University National Independent
Ivor Guest Breconshire and Radnorshire National Independent
1931 Eleanor Rathbone Combined English Universities Independent
Josiah Wedgwood ¹ Newcastle-under-Lyme Independent Labour
George Buchanan ¹ Glasgow Gorbals Independent Labour Party
David Kirkwood ¹ Dumbarton Burghs Independent Labour Party
James Maxton ¹ Glasgow Bridgeton Independent Labour Party
John McGovern ¹ Glasgow Shettleston Independent Labour Party
Richard Wallhead ¹ Merthyr Tydfil Independent Labour Party
David Lloyd George Caernarvon Independent Liberal
Gwilym Lloyd George Pembrokeshire Independent Liberal
Megan Lloyd George Anglesey Independent Liberal
Goronwy Owen Caernarvonshire Independent Liberal
Gordon Campbell Burnley National
I. M. Horobin Southwark Central National
J. A. Leckie Walsall National
Austin Hopkinson Mossley National Independent
Ernest Graham-Little London University National Independent
1930 (b) Ernest Taylor Paddington South Empire Free Trade Crusade
1929 Ernest Graham-Little London University Independent
Robert Newman Exeter Independent
Eleanor Rathbone Combined English Universities Independent
Thomas Robinson Stretford Independent
Neil Maclean ² Glasgow Govan Independent Labour
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Edwin Scrymgeour Dundee Scottish Prohibition Party
1924 Shapurji Saklatvala Battersea North Communist Party of Great Britain
Winston Churchill Epping Constitutionalist
John Hugh Edwards Accrington Constitutionalist
Abraham England Heywood and Radcliffe Constitutionalist
Hamar Greenwood Walthamstow East Constitutionalist
Frederick Edward Guest Bristol North Constitutionalist
Algernon Henry Moreing Camborne Constitutionalist
Thomas Robinson Stretford Constitutionalist
John Ward Stoke Constitutionalist
Austin Hopkinson Mossley Independent
Ernest Graham-Little London University Independent
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Edwin Scrymgeour Dundee Scottish Prohibition Party
1923 George M. L. Davies University of Wales Christian Pacifist
Austin Hopkinson Mossley Independent
Oswald Mosley Harrow Independent
Rhys Hopkin Morris Cardiganshire Independent Liberal
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Edwin Scrymgeour Dundee Scottish Prohibition Party
1922 Walton Newbold Motherwell Communist Party of Great Britain
George Jarrett Dartford Constitutionalist
Austin Hopkinson Mossley Independent
Oswald Mosley Harrow Independent
G. H. Roberts Norwich Independent
H. T. A. Becker Richmond Independent Conservative
James Malcolm Monteith Erskine Westminster St George's Independent Conservative
Gordon Ralph Hall Caine East Dorset Independent Conservative
Owen Thomas Anglesey Independent Labour
James Ramsay Montagu Butler Cambridge University Independent Liberal
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Edwin Scrymgeour Dundee Scottish Prohibition Party
1921 (b) Murray Sueter Hertford Anti-Waste League and Independent
1921 (b) James Malcolm Monteith Erskine Westminster St George's Anti-Waste League
1921 (b) Thomas Andrew Polson Dover Independent
1920 (b) Charles Vere Ferrers Townshend Wrekin Independent
1920 (b) Charles Palmer Wrekin Independent
(b) = by-election
  1. Stood as a "Labour Party" candidate, but without the backing of the Labour Party and did not take the Labour Party whip.
  2. Due to an oversight, Maclean's candidature was not endorsed by the Labour Party. Once elected, he immediately took the Labour Party whip.

1832 - 1918

Excluded during this period are MPs from the Conservative and Liberal Parties, the Labour Party and the Labour Representation Committee, the Liberal Unionist Party, the Whigs and the Tories. Before 1885 it becomes increasingly difficult to identify which MPs were independent, and Craig's classification is used.

Election Member of Parliament Constituency Party/Description
1918 Henry Douglas King North Norfolk Coalition Independent
Alfred Waterson Kettering Co-operative Party
Horatio Bottomley Hackney South Independent
Noel Pemberton-Billing Hertford Independent
Frank Herbert Rose Aberdeen North Independent Labour
Owen Thomas Anglesey Independent Labour
Josiah Wedgwood Newcastle-under-Lyme Independent Liberal
Robert Hewitt Barker Sowerby Independent NADSS
George Nicoll Barnes Glasgow Gorbals Coalition National Democratic Party
Allen Clement Edwards East Ham South Coalition National Democratic Party
Joseph Frederick Green Leicester West Coalition National Democratic Party
Eldred Hallas Birmingham Duddeston Coalition National Democratic Party
Charles Jesson Walthamstow West Coalition National Democratic Party
Charles Edgar Loseby Bradford East Coalition National Democratic Party
Matthew Turnbull Simm Wallsend Coalition National Democratic Party
James Andrew Seddon Hanley Coalition National Democratic Party
James Walton Don Valley Coalition National Democratic Party
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Richard Cooper Walsall National Party
Henry Page Croft Bournemouth National Party
John Joseph Jones Silvertown National Socialist Party
1917 (b) Benjamin Tillett Salford North Independent Labour
1916 (b) Noel Pemberton Billing Hertford Independent
1915 (b) Charles Butt Stanton Merthyr Tydfil Independent Labour
1913 (b) John Wakefield Weston Kendal Independent Conservative
Dec 1910 Francis Bennett-Goldney Canterbury Independent Conservative
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
Jan 1910 Archibald Cameron Corbett Glasgow Tradeston Independent Liberal
Samuel Storey Sunderland Independent Conservative
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1907 (b) Victor Grayson Colne Valley Independent Labour
1906 John Wilkinson Taylor Chester-le-Street Independent Labour
John Williams Gower Independent Lib-Lab
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1904 (b) John Seely Isle of Wight Independent Conservative
1902 (b) John Cathcart Wason Orkney and Shetland Independent Liberal
1900 John Austin Osgoldcross Independent Liberal
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1899 (b) John Austin Osgoldcross Independent Liberal
1895 Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1894 (b) John Macleod Sutherland Liberal/Crofter
1892 John Burns Battersea Independent Labour
Keir Hardie West Ham South Independent Labour
Joseph Havelock Wilson Middlesbrough Independent Labour
Edward William Watkin Hythe Independent Liberal
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1888 (b) William Pritchard Morgan Merthyr Tydfil Independent Liberal
1886 Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1885 Robert Anstruther St Andrews Burghs Independent Liberal
John Macdonald Cameron Wick Burghs Independent Liberal
George Campbell Kirkcaldy Burghs Independent Liberal
Charles Augustus Vansittart Conybeare Camborne Independent Liberal/Radical
Joseph Cowen Newcastle-upon-Tyne Independent Liberal
William John Wentworth-Fitzwilliam Peterborough Independent Liberal
George Joachim Goschen Edinburgh East Independent Liberal
George Harrison Edinburgh South Independent Liberal
Charles Stuart Parker Perth Independent Liberal
Edward William Watkin Hythe Independent Liberal
John Wilson Edinburgh Central Independent Liberal
Gavin Brown Clark Caithness Independent Liberal / Crofter
Charles Fraser-Mackintosh Inverness-shire Independent Liberal / Crofter
Roderick MacDonald Ross and Cromarty Independent Liberal / Crofter
Donald Horne Macfarlane Argyll Independent Liberal / Crofter
William Abraham Rhondda Independent Lib-Lab
Thomas Power O'Connor Liverpool Scotland Nationalist Party (Ireland)
1875 (b) Edward Kenealy Stoke Independent
1847 Feargus O'Connor Nottingham Chartist

Northern Irish MPs

MPs from the Democratic Unionist Party, Nationalist Party, Sinn Féin, Social Democratic and Labour Party or Ulster Unionist Party, including those Ulster Unionists who stood as part of the Conservative Party, are excluded, as are those identified as Nationalist Party MPs. While these four are all currently regarded as major parties, it should be remembered that each of these parties has at times held only a single seat, and for many years Sinn Féin was a banned organisation and did not contest elections.

Election Member of Parliament Constituency Party/Description
2010 Naomi Long Belfast East Alliance
Sylvia Hermon North Down Independent Unionist
1997 Robert McCartney North Down UK Unionist Party
1995 (b) Robert McCartney North Down UK Unionist Party
1992 James Kilfedder 1 North Down Ulster Popular Unionist Party
1987 James Kilfedder 1 North Down Ulster Popular Unionist Party
1986 (b) James Kilfedder 1 North Down Ulster Popular Unionist Party
1983 James Kilfedder 1 North Down Ulster Popular Unionist Party
1981 (b) Owen Carron 2 Fermanagh and South Tyrone Anti H-Block
1981 (b) Bobby Sands 3 Fermanagh and South Tyrone Anti H-Block
1979 Frank Maguire 4 Fermanagh and South Tyrone Independent Republican
James Kilfedder 1 North Down Independent Ulster Unionist
John Dunlop 5 Mid Ulster United Ulster Unionist Party
Oct 1974 Frank Maguire 4 Fermanagh and South Tyrone Independent Republican
Robert Bradford 6 Belfast South Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
William Craig 6 Belfast East Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
John Dunlop 5 Mid Ulster Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Feb 1974 Robert Bradford 6 Belfast South Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
William Craig 6 Belfast East Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
John Dunlop 5 Mid Ulster Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
1970 Ian Paisley 7 North Antrim Protestant Unionist Party
Gerry Fitt 8 Belfast West Republican Labour Party
Bernadette Devlin Mid Ulster Unity
Frank McManus Fermanagh and South Tyrone Unity
1969 (b) Bernadette Devlin Mid Ulster Opposition Unity
1966 Gerry Fitt 8 Belfast West Republican Labour Party
1956 (b) George Forrest Mid Ulster Independent Unionist
1951 Michael O'Neill Mid Ulster Independent Nationalist
Jack Beattie Belfast West Irish Labour Party
1945 Jack Beattie Belfast West Independent Labour
James Little 9 Down Independent Unionist
1943 (b) Jack Beattie Belfast West Northern Ireland Labour Party
1919 (b) George Boyle Hanna East Antrim Independent Unionist
(b) = by-election
  1. Kilfedder was an Ulster Unionist MP for Belfast West 1964-1966 and for North Down until 1977 when he left the party in opposition to Enoch Powell's proposals for integration over devolution. Kilfedder sat as an Independent Unionist until 1980, then formed the Ulster Popular Unionist Party which primarily served as a vehicle for him and his supporters.
  2. Carron was elected on the issue of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, standing as a "Anti H-Block/Proxy Political Prisoner" after new laws banned the nomination of any of the hunger strikers. He did not take his seat in the House of Commons. From 1982 onwards he was standing as a Sinn Féin in elections, including his unsuccessful defence of this seat in the 1983 general election.
  3. Sands was the most prominent of the Irish Hunger Strikers and incarcareted at HM Prison Maze at the time of his election, though he was ideologically opposed to taking his seat in the Commons.
  4. Maguire was the product of an electoral pact amongst Irish Nationalists. Although in the tradition of the prior Unity pact, he did not use the label (though is sometimes listed as a Unity MP). He did take his seat in the House of Commons, though only attended rarely.
  5. Dunlop was the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party MP for Mid Ulster from February 1974, until the party split over leader William Craig's proposals for power-sharing with the Social Democratic and Labour Party in 1976. One faction, to which Dunlop belonged, formed the United Ulster Unionist Party, under which banner he stood and sat for the constituency until standing down at the 1983 election.
  6. Craig and Bradford were the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party MPs for Belfast East & Belfast South respectively from February 1974 and stayed in Vanguard following the 1976 party split, then merging the party into the Ulster Unionists in February 1978.
  7. In 1971 Paisley merged the Protestant Unionist Party into the new Democratic Unionist Party.
  8. Fitt was elected as a Republican Labour Party in 1966 and 1970, but later in the latter year he left the party and co-founded the Social Democratic and Labour Party, for which he sat as an MP until 1980, when he left that party and sat in the Commons as an Independent Socialist until his defeat in 1983.
  9. Little was elected as an official Ulster Unionist in the 1939 Down by-election. Prior to the 1945 general election he resigned from the party in protest at being subject to a reselection due to the retirement of Viscount Castlereagh, the other official Unionist MP, and held his seat as an Independent Ulster Unionist. He died in 1946.

Irish MPs

All MPs are listed except those from the Ulster Unionist Party (affiliated to the Conservative Party during this period), the Nationalist Party, Sinn Féin, the Liberal Party, the Liberal Unionist Party and the Home Rule candidates.

Election Member of Parliament Constituency Party/Description
1918 Robert Henry Woods Dublin University Independent Unionist
Thomas Henry Burn Belfast St Anne's Labour Unionist
Samuel McGuffin Belfast Shankill Labour Unionist
Thompson Donald Belfast Victoria Labour Unionist
1914 (b) Edward John Graham Tullamore Independent Nationalist
1914 (b) William O'Brien Cork City All-for-Ireland League
1913 (b) John Guiney North Cork All-for-Ireland League
1911 (b) Timothy Michael Healy North East Cork All-for-Ireland League
Dec 1910 William O'Brien Cork City All-for-Ireland League
Maurice Healy Cork City All-for-Ireland League
Daniel Desmond Sheehan Mid Cork All-for-Ireland League
Patrick Guiney North Cork All-for-Ireland League
Moreton Frewen North East Cork All-for-Ireland League
John Walsh South Cork All-for-Ireland League
Eugene Crean South East Cork All-for-Ireland League
James Gilhooly West Cork All-for-Ireland League
John McKean South Monaghan Independent Nationalist
Laurence Ginnell North Westmeath Independent Nationalist
1910 (b) Maurice Healy North East Cork All-for-Ireland League
Jan 1910 William O'Brien Cork City All-for-Ireland League
Daniel Desmond Sheehan Mid Cork All-for-Ireland League
Patrick Guiney North Cork All-for-Ireland League
William O'Brien North East Cork All-for-Ireland League
Eugene Crean South East Cork All-for-Ireland League
James Gilhooly West Cork All-for-Ireland League
Timothy Michael Healy North Louth All-for-Ireland League
John O'Donnell South Mayo All-for-Ireland League
Eugene O'Sullivan East Kerry Independent Nationalist
John McKean South Monaghan Independent Nationalist
Laurence Ginnell North Westmeath Independent Nationalist
1909 (b) Maurice Healy Cork City Independent Nationalist
1906 (b) D. D. Sheehan Mid Cork Independent Labour
1906 William O'Brien Cork City Independent Nationalist
Timothy Michael Healy North Louth Independent Nationalist
Thomas Henry Sloan Belfast South Independent Unionist
1904 (b) William O'Brien Cork City Independent Nationalist
1903 (b) Edward Mitchell North Fermanagh Independent
1902 (b) Thomas Henry Sloan Belfast South Independent Unionist
1902 (b) James Wood Down East Independent
1900 John Campbell South Armagh Independent Nationalist
Timothy Michael Healy North Louth Independent Nationalist
Joseph Nolan South Louth Independent Nationalist
James Laurence Carew South Meath Independent Nationalist
Patrick James Kennedy North Westmeath Independent Nationalist
1875 (b) John Mitchel Tipperary Independent Nationalist
1875 (b) John Mitchel Tipperary Independent Nationalist
1871 (b) John Martin Meath Independent Nationalist
1869 (b) Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa Tipperary Independent Nationalist
1857 John James Ennis Athlone Independent Opposition
John Francis Maguire Dungarvan Independent Opposition
Michael Sullivan Kilkenny City Independent Opposition
Waterford City Independent Opposition
Francis Macnamara Calcutt Clare Independent Opposition
County Kilkenny Independent Opposition
County Leitrim Independent Opposition
George Henry Moore Mayo Independent Opposition
Edward McEvoy Meath Independent Opposition
Matthew Elias Corbally Meath Independent Opposition
Tipperary Independent Opposition
Richard Levinge Westmeath Independent Opposition
County Wexford Independent Opposition
1855 (b) Edward McEvoy Meath Independent Opposition
1853 (b) John Francis Maguire Dungarvan Independent Opposition
1853 (b) Cornelius O'Brien Clare Independent Opposition
1847 Thomas Chisholm Anstey Youghal Irish Confederate
William Smith O'Brien County Limerick Irish Confederate

See also

Sources

References