Editing Alec Douglas-Home (section)

=== Re-election to Parliament and peerage ===
In 1950, [[Clement Attlee]], the Labour prime minister, called a general election. Dunglass was invited to stand once again as Unionist candidate for Lanark. Having been disgusted at personal attacks during the 1945 campaign by [[Tom Steele (politician)|Tom Steele]], his Labour opponent, Dunglass did not scruple to remind the voters of Lanark that Steele had warmly thanked the Communist Party and its members for helping him take the seat from the Unionists. By 1950, with the [[Cold War]] at its height, Steele's association with the communists was a crucial electoral liability.<ref>Thorpe (1997), pp. 134–135</ref> Dunglass regained the seat with one of the smallest majorities in any British constituency: 19,890 to Labour's 19,205.<ref>{{Cite news |date=25 February 1950 |title=Results of the General Election |work=The Manchester Guardian |pages=6–8}}</ref> Labour narrowly won the general election, with a majority of five.<ref name=ts245/>

[[File:Hirsel House, Coldstream - geograph.org.uk - 93665.jpg|thumb|alt=exterior of large country house|right|The Hirsel, the Douglas-Home family's principal residence]]
In July 1951 the 13th earl died. Dunglass succeeded him, inheriting the title of [[Earl of Home]] together with the extensive family estates, including the Hirsel, the Douglas-Homes' principal residence. The new Lord Home took his seat in the Lords; a by-election was called to appoint a new MP for Lanark, but it was still pending when Attlee called another general election in October 1951.{{Efn|Labour's majority of five seats was not thought large enough to sustain the party through a full five-year term in office. [[George&nbsp;VI]] was due to be absent for six months on a Commonwealth tour, and Attlee agreed that it was necessary that the King should leave behind a stable government not likely to fall in his absence. Attlee called a further election in October 1951 at a time not advantageous to his party, which was lagging behind the Conservatives in opinion polls. Labour polled more votes than the Conservatives at the election, but the British first-past-the-post electoral system nevertheless gave more seats to the Conservatives. The King's tour did not take place because of his poor health.<ref name="ts245">{{Harvp|Thomas-Symonds|2010|p=245}}</ref>}} The Unionists held Lanark, and the national result gave the Conservatives under Churchill a small but [[working majority|working]] majority of seventeen.<ref>Thorpe (1997), p. 140</ref>