Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election

Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election 1961
Court	Election court
Citation(s)	3 All ER 354.
Case history
Related action(s)	Peerage Act 1963
Court membership
Judges sitting	Mr Justice Gorman, Mr Justice McNair
Keywords
disclaiming peerages

Re Bristol South-East Parliamentary Election ([1961] 3 All ER 354) is a 1961 United Kingdom election court case brought about by an election petition by Malcolm St Clair against Tony Benn, the winner of the 1961 Bristol South-East by-election where Benn had won the most votes but was disqualified from taking his seat in the House of Commons as he had inherited a hereditary peerage as 2nd Viscount Stansgate.^[1] Benn argued that as he had not applied for a writ of summons, he was not a member of the House of Lords and that the voters had the right to choose who they wanted to represent them.^[2]

The court made a ruling of undue election because the voters were aware that Benn was legally disqualified from sitting in the House of Commons, their votes had to be counted as being "thrown away" and Malcolm St Clair as the runner-up would take the seat instead.^[3]