1943 Midlothian and Peebles Northern by-election
The vacancy was caused by the resignation in January 1943[1] of the constituency's Unionist MP, John Colville, to take up the post of Governor of Bombay.The Unionist Party nominated Sir David King Murray, the Solicitor General for Scotland, who may have expected to be returned unopposed.[2] A week after the by-election, Nazi propaganda minister Josef Goebbels cited Common Wealth's strong showing as evidence of a communist resurgence in Britain.Making his famous 'total war' speech to an audience of Nazi loyalists in Berlin's Sportpalast, Goebbels said: "In a recent by-election for the House of Commons, the independent, that is communist, candidate got 10,741 of the 22,371 votes cast.King Murray held the seat only until the post-war general election in July 1945, when he stood down to be a Senator of the College of Justice and a Lord of Session.