Hamilton South by-election, 1999
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On August 4, 1999 NATO announced that the Member of Parliament for Hamilton South, the Rt. Hon. George Robertson, had been chosen as its new Secretary-General. This meant that Robertson was required to resign his seat which he had won as a Labour candidate in the 1997 general election. The seat had fallen vacant in a Parliamentary recess, and the law does not permit a byelection to be called during a recess if the sitting member resigns by taking the Chiltern Hundreds. The Labour Party did not wish to wait until the end of the recess to call the election as it would give opposition parties longer to campaign.
The problem was solved when Robertson was elevated to the House of Lords as Baron Robertson of Port Ellen on August 24, 1999, instantly vacating his seat. As of 2004 this remains the last elevation of a sitting MP. The writ for the byelection was moved immediately. Labour selected Bill Tynan, a locally-based Trade Union official, to defend the seat. The Scottish National Party, which was likely to provide the main challenge, chose Solicitor Annabelle Ewing. Despite not living locally this was a useful choice as Ewing was the daughter of Winnie Ewing who had defeated Labour to win the Hamilton byelection of 1967. The Scottish Socialist Party fought a strong campaign for the seat, and Stephen Mungall was nominated by a local group protesting against the management of the local football team Hamilton Academical F.C..
Polling day in the by-election was on September 23. The Labour Party narrowly held on to the seat, after a recount; the Liberal Democrats polled embarrassingly poorly, which many interpreted as voter dissatisfaction with their decision to join the Labour Party in a coalition in the Scottish Executive. Stephen Mungall saved his deposit.
Results
The turnout was 25%.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share | Change |
| Bill Tynan | Labour | 7,172 | 36.9% | -28.7% |
| Annabelle Ewing | Scottish National Party | 6,616 | 34.0% | +16.4% |
| Shareen Blackall | Scottish Socialist Party | 1,847 | 9.5% | |
| Charles Ferguson | Conservative | 1,406 | 7.2% | -1.4% |
| Stephen Mungall | Independent | 1,075 | 5.5% | |
| Marilyne MacLaren | Liberal Democrat | 634 | 3.3% | -1.9% |
| Monica Burns | Pro-Life Alliance | 257 | 1.3% | -0.7% |
| Tom Dewar | Socialist Labour Party | 238 | 1.2% | |
| Jim Reid | Scottish Unionist Party | 113 | 0.6% | |
| Alastair McConnachie | UK Independence Party | 61 | 0.3% | |
| George Stidolph | Natural Law Party | 18 | 0.1% | |
| John Drummond Moray | Independent | 17 | 0.1% |
Mungall used the description "Hamilton Accies Home, Watson Away", referring to demands by some fans that Hamilton Academicals should play their home matches locally and that Watson, the manager, should go.
General Election result, 1997
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share |
| George Robertson | (Lab) | 21,709 | 65.6% |
| Ian Black | (SNP) | 5,831 | 17.6% |
| Robert Kilgour | (C) | 2,858 | 8.6% |
| Richard Pitts | (L Dem) | 1,693 | 5.1% |
| Colin Gunn | (PLA) | 684 | 2.1% |
| Stuart Brown | (RP) | 316 | 1.0% |