The 1970 South Ayrshire by-election of 19 March 1970 was held after the death of Labour Member of Parliament (MP) Emrys Hughes on 18 October 1969.
In what was a fairly common occurrence at the time, the Scottish Liberal Party did not run a candidate for the by-election.
[2] Both the Conservatives and Labour made complaints to the police about the illegal posting of SNP posters during the campaign, while on polling day an incident involving an SNP and a Labour official led to the former making a police complaint.
[2] The day after the election, but before the votes were counted, The Glasgow Herald reported that the Labour Party candidate seemed "certain to win the seat".
[2] After the result was known, the same newspaper's political correspondent suggested that "so handsome a victory" for Labour meant Harold Wilson could keep considering the option of calling a general election in the summer.