1955 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

The 1955 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 26 May as part of the wider general election with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post.

1955 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

26 May 1955
12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 630 seats in the House of Commons
Leader Sir Basil Brooke, Bt Paddy McLogan Party UUP Sinn Féin Leader since 1943 1954 Leader's seat Did not stand[fn 1] Did not stand Seats won 10 2 Seat change 1 2 Popular vote 442,647 152,310 Percentage 68.5% 23.6%

Results

This was the first election to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since the creation of Northern Ireland in 1921 where all constituencies in the region were contested

The Ulster Unionists regained the seat which they had lost to Jack Beattie from the Irish Labour Party. The nationalist interest was represented by Sinn Féin who gained the two seats previously held by the Nationalist Party. Patricia McLaughlin was the first woman elected as an MP for a Northern Ireland constituency.

In the election as a whole, the Conservative Party, which included the Ulster Unionists, led by Sir Anthony Eden as Prime Minister, continued in a majority government.

Results[1][2]

Party		MPs	Change	Votes	%
	UUP	10	2	442,647	68.5%
	Sinn Féin	2	2	152,310	23.6%
	NI Labour	0		35,614	5.5%
	Irish Labour	0	1	16,050	2.5%
Total		12		646,621	100

MPs elected

Constituency	Party		MP
Antrim North		UUP	Phelim O'Neill
Antrim South		UUP	Knox Cunningham
Armagh		UUP	C. W. Armstrong
Belfast East		UUP	Alan McKibbin
Belfast North		UUP	H. Montgomery Hyde
Belfast South		UUP	David Campbell
Belfast West		UUP	Patricia McLaughlin
Down North		UUP	George Currie
Down South		UUP	Lawrence Orr
Fermanagh and South Tyrone		Sinn Féin	Philip Clarke
Londonderry		UUP	Robin Chichester-Clark
Mid Ulster		Sinn Féin	Tom Mitchell

By-elections

By-election	Date	Incumbent	Party		Winner	Party		Cause
Mid Ulster	11 August 1955[by 1]	Tom Mitchell		Sinn Féin	Tom Mitchell		Sinn Féin	Disqualification
Mid Ulster	8 May 1956[by 1]	Charles Beattie		UUP	George Forrest		Independent Unionist	Disqualification
Belfast East	19 March 1959	Alan McKibbin		UUP	Stanley McMaster		UUP	Death

1. Tom Mitchell won the most votes at the general election but was disqualified by the House of Commons on the grounds that he was a convicted felon. A by-election was called at which Mitchell again stood and won the most votes. On this occasion an election petition was lodged and Mitchell was again disqualified with the Election Court declaring his opponent Charles Beattie duly elected. It then emerged that Beattie himself was ineligible to sit because he held offices of profit under the Crown. Beattie was indemnified by Parliament against the consequences of sitting and voting while ineligible, and a further writ was moved. In the subsequent by-election, Independent Unionist George Forrest was elected. Forrest later joined the Ulster Unionists and won the seat for the party at the 1959 general election.

Footnotes

1. Brooke sat as the MP for Lisnaskea in the Northern Ireland Parliament.

References

1. "Elections to the United Kingdom Parliament held in Northern Ireland: General Election 1955". ElectionsIreland.org. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
2. "The 1955 Westminster Elections in Northern Ireland". ARK: Northern Ireland Elections. Retrieved 19 January 2019.