Glasgow North East by-election, 2009

Glasgow North East by-election

← 2005 12 November 2009 2010 →
Candidate Willie Bain David Kerr Ruth Davidson Party Labour SNP Conservative Popular vote 12,231 4,120 1,075 Percentage 59.4% 20.0% 5.2%
MP before election Michael Martin Speaker Subsequent MP Willie Bain Labour

Michael Martin
Speaker

Willie Bain
Labour

The 2009 Glasgow North East by-election was a by-election for the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Commons constituency of Glasgow North East. The by-election was held on 12 November 2009 following the resignation of Michael Martin as an MP and as Speaker of the House of Commons following the MPs' expenses scandal. Martin was the first Speaker since Sir John Trevor in 1695 to be forced from office.Willie Bain, the Scottish Labour Party candidate, won with 59% of the vote. Just 33% of the electorate voted, which is the lowest ever percentage turnout in a Scottish by-election to the House of Commons.

There was a longer than normal gap between a seat falling vacant and the by-election. On 22 July, during a brief debate in the House of Commons, the UK Government refused to move the writ before the summer recess.

It is a convention (not always observed in practice) that mainstream political parties do not contest elections against sitting Speakers of the House of Commons. As such, Michael Martin won Glasgow North East without his former Labour Party label, and neither the Conservative nor Liberal Democrat parties had fought the constituency (or its predecessor, Glasgow Springburn) in either 2001 or 2005.

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