Glasgow Woodside (UK Parliament constituency)

Glasgow Woodside
Former burgh constituency for the House of Commons
Subdivisions of Scotland	City of Glasgow
1950–1974 (1974)
Seats	One
Created from	Glasgow St Rollox
Replaced by	Glasgow Hillhead Glasgow Maryhill

Glasgow Woodside was a parliamentary constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1950 until 1974.

The constituency was preceded by the Labour held St Rollox, which was composed of the Glasgow City Council wards of Cowcaddens and Woodside.

The seat was extended to include North Kelvin Ward, which had been part of Glasgow Maryhill. The name was changed to reflect the new central area of the constituency, which was Woodside.

On the new boundaries, and following a national swing, Glasgow Woodside was narrowly gained by the Conservatives in 1950.

In 1955, Cowcaddens Ward was moved to Glasgow Central while Partick East Ward was gained from Glasgow Hillhead, culminating in an increased Conservative majority of over 4000 in that year.

Despite a national swing to the Tories in the 1959 General Election, there was a swing to Labour in Scotland, and four Conservative held seats fell to Labour (Ayrshire Central, Glasgow Craigton, Glasgow Scotstoun and Lanark).

The pro-Labour swing saw the Conservative majority in Glasgow Woodside cut in half.

In a 1962 by election, Glasgow Woodside fell to Labour (seeing the return of Neil Carmichael), and was retained by Labour in 1964 and 1966.

Despite winning 7 of the 9 council seats in the constituency, the Conservatives narrowly failed to regain the seat in 1970.

In February 1974, Glasgow Woodside was abolished in name. In fact post Feb 1974 Glasgow Kelvingrove became a combination of 100% of Glasgow Woodside and part of the old Glasgow Kelvingrove (the rest of which was absorbed by Glasgow Central). The Woodside MP Neil Carmichael became the MP for the new Kelvingrove, while the old Kelvingrove MP (Maurice Miller) stood in the new East Kilbride seat which had been formed from much of Lanark.

In 1983, Glasgow Kelvingrove was more or less equally divided between Glasgow Hillhead and Glasgow Maryhill.

Neil Carmichael stood and lost against the SDP MP for Hillhead, Roy Jenkins.

Members of Parliament

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1950	William Gordon Bennett	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1955	William Grant	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color" |	1962 by-election	Neil George Carmichael, later Baron Carmichael of Kelvingrove	Labour
1974 (Feb)		constituency abolished

Election results

Glasgow Woodside by-election, 1962

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Neil Carmichael	8,303
	Conservative	N.M. Glen	6,936
	Liberal	J. House	5,000
	SNP	A. Niven	2,562
	Independent Socialist	Guy Aldred	134
	Socialist (GB)	R. Vallar	83
Majority			1,368
	Labour gain from Conservative		Swing

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "G" (part 1)