sentences:  At a March 1973 by-election, he was elected as the Member of Parliament for Dundee East, holding off by 1,141 votes a strong challenge from Gordon Wilson of the Scottish National Party.The contest had been seen as three-way fight between Machine, Wilson and Lord Provost of Dundee, William Fitzgerald, standing as Conservative.On the day of the election it was specualted in "The Glasgow Herald" that the Labour vote may be hurt by the fact that Machin was an English candidate in a Scottish seat and because some local Labour supporters were angered as the felt Machin's trade union had used influence to "buy" his nomination.