The results of the Scottish and Welsh referendums were extensively covered in the press and broadcast media. All the party leaders gave their reactions. The Prime Minister, Megan Lloyd George, said that while she was delighted with the Scottish vote, she was disappointed that the Welsh people had very narrowly voted against a parliament for their nation. The Socialist Labour leader, Clement Attlee, said that the party would come together after the divisions over the referendums. The party in parliament would give full support to legislation establishing the Scottish parliament. The Conservative Party leader, Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, said that while the party respected the result of the referendum in Scotland, it was a proud unionist party and would always fight for the preservation of the United Kingdom. He asked why, when Scotland has its own parliament, should the MP for North Lanarkshire have the right to speak and vote in the House of Commons on matters which would be devolved to that parliament, while the MP for North Norfolk would not be able to do so. This became known as the North Lanarkshire question. He also asked if Scotland should still return 72 MPs to Westminster when it has its own parliament.
Gwynfor Evans, the president of Plaid Cymru, the Welsh Nationalist Party, said that while he was very disappointed with the result of the referendum in Wales, the party would keep on fighting for a Welsh parliament as the first step towards an independent Wales. He attacked the Socialist Labour Party as having betrayed the people of Wales. In the last month over seven thousand people had joined the party, many of whom had resigned from the Socialist Labour Party in disgust at their party's opposition to a Welsh parliament. Robert McIntyre, the leader of the Scottish National Party, said that a Scottish Parliament was only the first step in the journey to an independent Scotland.
The consensus among political commentators was that the first elections to the Scottish parliament would be held sometime in the spring of 1955. The new session of Parliament would begin on 27 October, with the Scottish Parliament Bill being debated in the House of Commons in November and December 1953, and perhaps in the following January after the Christmas recess. It would then go to the Senate, but elections to that body being held on 3 March 1954, it would be dissolved about four weeks previously. After the elections the Senate would sit for three or four weeks before rising for the Easter recess. Easter Sunday was 18 April 1954. So much of the Scottish Parliament Bill would not be debated by the Senate until May, and perhaps June, 1954. With the bill not becoming law until May or June 1954, the spring of 1955 was the earliest feasible time for the first election to the Scottish Parliament.
I have calculated the votes in the Sottish and Welsh referendums using the electorate in Scotland and Wales for the general election in May 1955 in OTL. In Scotland this was 3,387,536. The turnout in the referendum was 81.4% which would be 2,757.454. The vote for a Scottish parliament was 57.2% which is 1,577, 264. The vote against of 42.8% is 1,180,190. The majority for was 397,074.
The OTL electorate in Wales was 1,801,217. The turnout in the referendum was 76.1% which would be 1,370,726. The vote against a Welsh parliament was 50.4% which is 690,846, while the vote for was 49.6% which was 679,880. The majority against was 10,966.
Of course these would not have been the actual votes in the referendums but they would have been within thousands, or the low tens of thousands, of them.
In the October 1950 general election in this TL there were 38 Conservative MPs elected in Scotland, 17 Liberal and 17 Socialist Labour.