1959 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1959 United Kingdom general election
8 October 1959
All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Hugh Gaitskell Harold Macmillan Jo Grimond
Party Labour Unionist Liberal
Last election 34 seats, 46.7% 36 seats, 50.1% 1 seats, 1.9%
Seats won 38 31 1
Seat change 4 5
Popular vote 1,245,255 1,260,287 108,963
Percentage 46.7% 47.3% 4.1%
Swing 2.8% 2.1%
  Fourth party
 
Leader David Robertson
Party Ind. Unionist
Last election N/A
Seats won 1
Seat change 1
Popular vote 12,163
Percentage 0.5%
Swing N/A
Results of the 1959 election in Scotland
  Conservative/Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal
  National Liberal
  Independent Unionist

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 8 October 1959 and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested. The Unionists, who aligned with the Conservative and Unionist Party at a UK level, together with their allies the National Liberals, won the largest number of votes, but lost out in seats to the Labour Party. Across the UK as a whole, the Conservatives won 365 seats, and returned as government with a majority of 100 seats.

Jo Grimond, now party leader for the Liberals, was returned as his party's only MP, representing Orkney and Shetland. The election also saw David Robertson returned as in "Independent Unionist" for Caithness and Sutherland. Robertson was the sitting MP for the seat, having resigned from taking the Conservative whip at Westminster in January of 1959. Robertson was not opposed by an official Unionist candidate.

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