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12 seats in Northern Ireland of the 630 seats in the House of Commons | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 1959 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland was held on 8 October with 12 MPs elected in single-seat constituencies using first-past-the-post as part of the wider general election in the United Kingdom.
The election took place towards the end of the IRA border campaign, which had seen the IRA launch a series of attacks and bombings against Northern Irish police and infrastructure. The launch of the campaign had in part been encouraged by the results of the last UK general election in Northern Ireland, which had seen Sinn Féin gain 2 seats, and receive nearly a quarter of the vote.
Results
The Ulster Unionists won all the seats in region. This was a net gain from the result at the previous election, although they held all seats in the region before the 1959 election was called: in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Philip Clarke was unseated by petition and Robert Grosvenor was declared elected to the seat; in Mid Ulster, George Forrest had been elected in a by-election as an Independent Unionist, but subsequently joined the Ulster Unionists.
In the election as a whole, the Conservative Party, which included the Ulster Unionists, led by Harold Macmillan as Prime Minister, continued in a majority government.
| Party | MPs | Votes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Change | No. | % | Change | ||
| UUP | 12 |  2
|
445,013 | 77.2% | 8.5
| |
| Sinn Féin | 0 |  2
|
63,415 | 11.0% | 12.6
| |
| NI Labour | 0 | 
|
44,370 | 7.7% | 2.2
| |
| Independent Labour | 0 |
|
20,062 | 3.5% | 3.5
| |
| Ulster Liberal | 0 |
|
3,253 | 0.6% | 0.6
| |
| Total | 12 |
|
576,113 | 100% |
| |
MPs elected
Footnotes
References
- ^ "Elections to the United Kingdom Parliament held in Northern Ireland: General Election 1959". ElectionsIreland.org. Archived from the original on 19 January 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
- ^ "The 1959 Westminster Elections in Northern Ireland". ARK: Northern Ireland Elections. Archived from the original on 23 June 2018. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
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This page was last edited on 4 June 2024, at 13:54