Berwick and Haddington (UK Parliament constituency)

Berwick and Haddington
Berwick and Haddington
Former county constituency; for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	Berwickshire, East Lothian
1918–1950
Seats	One
Created from	Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire
Replaced by	Berwick and East Lothian

Berwick and Haddington was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918, when it replaced the separate Berwickshire and Haddingtonshire constituencies, until it was renamed Berwick and East Lothian for the 1950 general election. It elected one Member of Parliament (MP), using the first-past-the-post voting system.

The constituency covered the counties of Berwickshire and East Lothian.

Members of Parliament

	Member	Party
1918	John Hope	Coalition Liberal
1922	Walter Waring	National Liberal
1923	Robert Spence	Labour
1924	Chichester Crookshank	Unionist
1929	George Sinkinson	Labour
1931	John McEwen	Unionist
1945	John Robertson	Labour
1950	constituency abolished

Election results

Berwickshire constituencies electoral history

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1918: Berwick and Haddington ^[1]^[2]^[3]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
C	National Liberal	John Hope	8,584	53.9
	Labour	Robert W. Foulis	4,783	30.0
	Liberal	Harold Tennant	2,557	16.1
Majority			3,801	23.9
Turnout			15,924	48.6
Registered electors			32,763
	National Liberal win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1922: Berwick and Haddington ^[4]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Walter Waring	6,342	31.9	−22.0
	Labour	Robert Spence	5,842	29.3	−0.7
	Liberal	William Henderson Pringle	4,422	22.2	+6.1
	Independent Liberal	John Hope	3,300	16.6	−37.3
Majority			500	2.6	N/A
Turnout			19,906	60.1	+11.5
Registered electors			33,119
	National Liberal gain from Independent Liberal		Swing	N/A

General election 1923: Berwick and Haddington ^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Robert Spence	8,576	37.0	+7.7
	Unionist	Chichester Crookshank	8,508	36.7	New
	Liberal	Walter Waring	6,084	26.3	+4.1
Majority			68	0.3	N/A
Turnout			23,168	69.4	+9.3
Registered electors			33,381
	Labour gain from National Liberal		Swing	+1.8

General election 1924: Berwick and Haddington ^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Chichester Crookshank	11,745	45.8	+9.1
	Labour	Robert Spence	8,882	34.7	−2.3
	Liberal	William Henderson Pringle	4,986	19.5	−6.8
Majority			2,863	11.1	N/A
Turnout			25,613	75.3	+5.9
Registered electors			34,017
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing	+5.7

General election 1929: Berwick and Haddington^[7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	George Sinkinson	11,761	37.5	+2.8
	Unionist	John McEwen	11,435	36.5	−9.3
	Liberal	James Greig	8,132	26.0	+6.5
Majority			326	1.0	N/A
Turnout			31,328	69.6	−5.7
Registered electors			45,043
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing	+6.1

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Berwick and Haddington^[8]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John McEwen	25,169	73.5	+36.0
	Labour	George Sinkinson	9,089	26.5	−11.0
Majority			16,080	47.0	N/A
Turnout			34,258	74.8	+5.2
	Unionist gain from Labour		Swing

General election 1935: Berwick and Haddington ^[9]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	John McEwen	19,839	58.1	−15.4
	Labour	John Robertson	14,299	41.9	+15.4
Majority			5,540	16.2	−30.8
Turnout			34,138	71.9	−2.9
	Unionist hold		Swing

General Election 1939–40

Another General Election was required to take place before the end of 1940. The political parties had been making preparations for an election to take place and by the Autumn of 1939, the following candidates had been selected;

Unionist: John McEwen
Labour: John Robertson^[10]
Liberal:^[11]

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Berwick and Haddington^[12]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	John Robertson	19,037	54.52
	Unionist	John McEwen	15,880	45.48
Majority			3,157	9.04	N/A
Turnout			34,917	70.51
	Labour gain from Unionist		Swing

References

^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1920
^ Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1922
^ British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig (1983). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
^ The Times, 17 November 1922
^ The Times, 8 December 1923
^ Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927
^ The Times, 1 June 1929
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1934
^ Whitaker's Almanack, 1939
^ Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939
^ The Liberal Magazine, 1939
^ Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "B" (part 2)

[1] Whitaker's Almanack, 1920

[2] Debrett's House of Commons and the Judicial Bench, 1922

[3] British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–1949, FWS Craig (1983). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

[4] The Times, 17 November 1922

[5] The Times, 8 December 1923

[6] Oliver & Boyd's Edinburgh Almanack, 1927

[7] The Times, 1 June 1929

[8] Whitaker's Almanack, 1934

[9] Whitaker's Almanack, 1939

[10] Report of the Annual Conference of the Labour Party, 1939

[11] The Liberal Magazine, 1939

[12] Craig, F. W. S. (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918–1949 (3 ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.

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