The contest was won by Donald Dewar, retaining the seat for Labour, widely seen as halting the rise of the Scottish National Party in the 1970s.
[citation needed] The by-election was caused by the death of William Watson Small (1909-78) of the Labour Party.
Small never held ministerial office, but served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Power from 1964.
In his maiden speech in Parliament, Dewar railed against a proposed increase on potato tax.
In that contest, the SNP overtook the Conservative Party as the main challenge to Labour at Glasgow Garscadden.
Bovey went on to contest Glasgow Hillhead in 1983, as well as Monklands West at the 1987 and 1992 UK general elections.
Labour did even better, and the SNP worse, shortly after this, in the 1978 regional elections, and Westminster by-elections in Hamilton and Berwick and East Lothian.