The result of the election provided the first major upset of the by-elections in the 1987-92 Parliament and was seen as embarrassing for the Labour Party, with the former Labour MP Jim Sillars winning the seat for the Scottish National Party with a majority of 3,554 votes and a large swing from Labour to the SNP. However, it would soon be the Tories who were suffering losses in by-elections, although the 1987-1992 Parliament would ultimately end with a fourth consecutive Conservative victory.[1]
Previous result and background
Bruce Millan had first been elected as MP for Govan in the 1983 general election, having previously represented Glasgow Craigton, a constituency which was abolished in that year and partly merged into the redrawn Govan.[2]
At the previous general election Millan, a former Scottish Secretary, had easily held the seat for the Labour Party, increasing his vote share from 55% in 1983 to 64.9%. In contrast, his main rivals, the SDP and the Conservatives, had both seen their shares of the vote drop by over 7%. Meanwhile, the SNP had managed to increase their share of the vote by over 4%. While Millan had been the clear winner, less than 1,000 votes separated the SDP in second and the SNP in fourth place, a significant change from 1983 when the SNP had been over 5,000 votes behind the SDP.[3]
