Glasgow Central by-election, 1989

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The Glasgow Central by-election, in the Glasgow Central constituency, Scotland, was held on 15 June 1989. It was caused by the death of the sitting Member of Parliament for the constituency, Robert McTaggart.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had high hopes of repeating their victory from the previous year at the by-election for the Glasgow Govan seat, and they chose as their candidate a close associate of their Govan victor, Jim Sillars in Alex Neil. However, the hoped for victory did not transpire for the SNP, as Mike Watson retained the seat for the Labour Party with a 6,462 majority, despite a 20.3% rise in the SNP share of the votes cast.

The Liberal Democrats fell to fifth place, the worst position achieved by a major party in any British by-election since the Walsall North by-election, 1976. This was equaled in the Henley by-election in 2008, when Labour also fell to fifth, and surpassed in the Glasgow North East by-election in 2009, when the Liberal Democrats came sixth. Their 1.6% vote share remained the lowest percentage vote for the Liberal Democrats until they entered the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition in 2010, and in fact was not beaten until the South Shields by-election three years in to their time in government.

This was also the only parliamentary contest engaged in by the Scottish Socialist Party that existed at the time (which should not be confused with the present day Scottish Socialist Party). Their candidate was Bill Kidd.

Results

See also

• Glasgow Central (UK Parliament constituency)
• Elections in Scotland
• List of United Kingdom by-elections