Moray and Nairn (UK Parliament constituency)

Moray and Nairn
Former county constituency for the House of Commons
1918–1983
Seats	One
Created from	Elginshire & Nairnshire Elgin Burghs
Replaced by	Moray Inverness, Nairn & Lochaber

Moray and Nairn was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1983.

It was formed by the amalgamation of the county constituency of Elginshire and Nairnshire with the parliamentary burghs of Elgin, previously part of Elgin Burghs, and Nairn and Forres, previously part of Inverness Burghs.

It was split for the 1983 general election and incorporated into Moray and Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1918	Sir Archibald Williamson	Coalition Liberal
	1922	Thomas Maule Guthrie	Coalition Liberal
	1922		National Liberal
	1923	James Stuart	Unionist
	1959	Gordon Campbell	Conservative
	Feb 1974	Winnie Ewing	SNP
	1979	Alex Pollock	Conservative
1983		constituency abolished

Election results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 14 December 1918: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Liberal	Archibald Williamson	Unopposed
	Liberal win (new seat)
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

Elections in the 1920s

1922 Moray and Nairn by-election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
C	Liberal	Thomas Guthrie	Unopposed
	Liberal hold
C indicates candidate endorsed by the coalition government.

General election 1922: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National Liberal	Thomas Guthrie	6,263	51.8	N/A
	Liberal	James Scott	5,832	48.2	N/A
Majority			431	3.6	N/A
Turnout			12,095	49.0	N/A
Registered electors			24,691
	National Liberal hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1923: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	8,116	53.4	New
	Liberal	Thomas Guthrie	7,089	46.6	−1.6
Majority			1,027	6.8	N/A
Turnout			15,215	61.3	+12.3
Registered electors			24,798
	Unionist gain from Liberal		Swing	N/A

General election 1924: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	9,762	61.9	+8.5
	Labour	Skene Mackay	6,005	38.1	New
Majority			3,757	23.8	+17.0
Turnout			15,767	61.7	+0.4
Registered electors			25,539
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1929: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	8,896	43.7	−18.2
	Labour	Joseph Duncan	6,566	32.3	−5.8
	Liberal	John Tennant	4,889	24.0	New
Majority			2,330	11.4	−12.4
Turnout			20,348	68.6	+6.9
Registered electors			29,669
	Unionist hold		Swing	−6.2

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1931: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	Unopposed	N/A	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

General election 14 November 1935: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	12,755	63.5	N/A
	Labour	James Davidson Vassie	7,347	36.5	New
Majority			5,408	27.0	N/A
Turnout			20,102		N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1940s

General election 1945: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	12,809	61.58
	Labour	Sinclair Shaw	7,993	38.42
Majority			4,816	23.16
Turnout			20,802	62.13
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1950s

General election 1950: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	15,478	59.85
	Labour	Richard Murray	10,383	40.15
Majority			5,095	19.70
Turnout			25,861
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1951: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	15,881	60.23
	Labour	David Hutchinson	10,487	39.77
Majority			5,394	20.46
Turnout			26,368
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1955: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	James Stuart	14,667	60.59
	Labour	M Mackay	9,538	39.41
Majority			5,129	21.18
Turnout			24,205
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1959: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gordon Campbell	13,742	52.63
	Labour	M. Mackay	6,539	25.04
	Liberal	Donald C. MacDonald	5,831	22.33	New
Majority			7,203	27.59
Turnout			26,112
	Unionist hold		Swing

Elections in the 1960s

General election 1964: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Gordon Campbell	12,741	50.86
	Labour	Gordon McIntosh	6,830	27.27
	Liberal	John Macleod	5,478	21.87
Majority			5,911	23.59
Turnout			25,049
	Unionist hold		Swing

General election 1966: Moray & Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gordon Campbell	11,842	48.15
	Labour	Donald MacKenzie	8,384	34.09
	Liberal	Thomas Alexander MacNair	4,368	17.76
Majority			3,458	14.06
Turnout			24,594	68.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Elections in the 1970s

General election 1970: Moray and Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Gordon Campbell	13,994	49.4	+1.3
	SNP	Thomas A Howe	7,885	27.8	New
	Labour	Peter Talbot	6,452	22.8	−11.3
Majority			6,109	21.6	+7.5
Turnout			28,331	72.0	+4.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

General election February 1974: Moray and Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Winnie Ewing	16,046	49.26
	Conservative	Gordon Campbell	14,229	43.68
	Labour	E G Smith	2,299	7.06
Majority			1,817	5.58
Turnout			32,574	78.72
	SNP gain from Conservative		Swing

General election October 1974: Moray and Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Winnie Ewing	12,667	41.2	−8.1
	Conservative	Alexander Pollock	12,300	40.0	−3.7
	Labour	E.G. Smith	2,985	9.7	+2.6
	Liberal	Keith Schellenberg	2,814	9.1	New
Majority			367	1.2	−4.4
Turnout			30,766	74.7	−4.0
	SNP hold		Swing

General election 1979: Moray and Nairn

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alexander Pollock	14,220	40.1	+0.1
	SNP	Winnie Ewing	13,800	38.9	−2.3
	Liberal	Steve Rodan	4,361	12.3	+3.2
	Labour	G E Scobie	3,104	8.7	−1.0
Majority			420	1.2	N/A
Turnout			35,487	77.5	+2.8
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing

References

• Craig, F. W. S. (1983) [1969]. British parliamentary election results 1918-1949 (3rd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "M" (part 3)