1961 Bristol South East by-election

The 1961 Bristol South East by-election was a

British House of Commons constituency of Bristol South East in the city of Bristol

The seat had become vacant when the constituency's Labour Member of Parliament (MP), Tony Benn, had inherited a hereditary peerage from his father and became Viscount Stansgate, thus making him automatically ineligible to serve in the House of Commons. He had been elected at a by-election in 1950.

Benn stood in the by-election anyway—claiming that he had not asked for and would not ask for a writ of summons to the

Malcolm St Clair—who was himself the heir to a peerage—filed a petition against the result, and was declared the winner after a court challenge

When the law was later changed by the

resigned his seat. Benn was returned to the House of Commons at the 1963 Bristol South East by-election

Result

Bristol South East by-election, 1961^[1]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Viscount Stansgate (Tony Benn) (disqualified)	23,275	69.5	+13.3
	Conservative	Malcolm St Clair	10,231	30.5	−13.3
Majority			−13,044	−39.0	N/A
Turnout			33,506	56.7	−24.7
	Conservative gain from Labour		Swing	−13.3

^ "1961 By Election Results". Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 15 August 2015.