United Kingdom general election, October 1974

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United Kingdom general election, October 1974
← February 1974 10 October 1974 1979 →
All 635 seats in the House of Commons
318 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 72.8%
  First party Second party Third party
  150x150px Edward Heath 1965 Jeremy Thorpe.jpg
Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jeremy Thorpe
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 18 January 1967
Leader's seat Huyton Sidcup North Devon
Last election 301 seats, 37.2% 297 seats, 37.9% 14 seats, 19.3%
Seats won 319 277 13
Seat change Increase 18 Decrease 20 Decrease 1
Popular vote 11,457,079 10,462,565 5,346,704
Percentage 39.2% 35.8% 18.3%
Swing Increase 2% Decrease 2.1% Decrease 1%
UK election, Oct 1974.svg
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.
(Map excludes Northern Ireland)
PM before election

Harold Wilson
Labour

 Subsequent PM

Harold Wilson
Labour
1970 election • MPs
February 1974 election • MPs
October 1974 election • MPs
1979 election • MPs
1983 election • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson winning an overall majority of just 3 seats.

The election of February that year had produced an unexpected hung parliament. Coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the Ulster Unionists failed, allowing Labour leader Harold Wilson to form a minority government. The October campaign was not as vigorous or exciting as the one in February. Despite continuing high inflation, Labour was able to boast that it had ended the miners' strike, which had dogged Heath's premiership, and had returned some stability. The Conservative Party, still led by Edward Heath, released a manifesto promoting national unity; however their chances of forming a government were hindered by the Ulster Unionist Party refusing to take their whip at Westminster in response to the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.

In the election the Labour Party won 319 seats, allowing them to form a majority government, albeit with a majority of only 3. The Conservatives and the Liberals each saw their vote share fall, and Conservative leader Edward Heath, who had lost three of the four elections he contested, was ousted as party leader in February 1975 and replaced with future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Scottish National Party won 11 of Scotland's 71 seats and 30% of the Scottish popular vote, their best Westminster representation until 2015. Subsequently, Labour's narrow parliamentary majority had disappeared by 1977, through a series of by-election losses and defections. They then required deals with the Liberals, the Ulster Unionists, the Scottish Nationalists and the Welsh Nationalists.

This was the last general election won by Labour until 1997: the next four elections all produced an outright Conservative victory.

The election was broadcast live on the BBC, and was presented by David Butler, Alastair Burnet, Robert McKenzie, Robin Day and Sue Lawley.[1][2]

Campaign

The brief period between the elections gave Wilson the opportunity to demonstrate reasonable progress. Despite high inflation, the miners' strike that had dogged Heath was over and some stability had been restored. Following the February election Heath had remained largely out of the public eye. As was expected[citation needed], the campaign was not as exciting[citation needed] as the one in February, and overall coverage by broadcasters was significantly scaled back. The Conservatives campaigned on a manifesto of national unity, in response to the mood of the public. Labour campaigned on its recent successes in government, and although the party was divided over Europe, their strengths outweighed that of Heath, who knew his future relied on an election victory. As for the Liberals[citation needed] and the SNP Devolution was a key issue, and was now one that the two main parties also felt the need to address. As for the Liberal manifesto, they simply reissued the one they had created for the last election.[3]

Timeline

The Prime Minister Harold Wilson made a ministerial broadcast on television on 18 September to announce that the election would be held on 10 October, less than eight months since the previous election. The key dates were as follows:

Friday 20 September Dissolution of the 46th parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 30 September Last day to file nomination papers
Wednesday 9 October Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 10 October Polling day
Friday 11 October The Labour Party wins control with a majority of 3
Tuesday 22 October 47th parliament assembles
Tuesday 29 October State Opening of Parliament

Results

Labour achieved a swing of 2% against the Conservatives. This was the first time since 1922 that a government had won an overall majority with less than 40% of the vote, albeit a majority of only 3. The Conservatives won just 36% of the vote, their worst share since 1945; and a slight drop in the Liberal vote saw them suffer a net loss of 1 seat.

↓
319 277 13 26
Labour Conservative Lib O
UK general election October 1974
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Standing Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
  Labour Harold Wilson 623 319 20 2 + 18 50.236 39.2 11,457,079 + 2.0
  Conservative Edward Heath 622 277 2 22 - 20 43.622 35.8 10,462,565 - 2.1
  Liberal Jeremy Thorpe 619 13 1 2 - 1 2.047 18.3 5,346,704 - 1.0
  SNP William Wolfe 71 11 4 0 + 4 1.732 2.9 839,617 + 0.9
  UUP Harry West 7 6 0 1 - 1 0.944 0.9 256,065 + 0.1
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 36 3 1 0 + 1 0.472 0.6 166,321 + 0.1
  SDLP Gerry Fitt 9 1 0 0 0 0.6 154,193 + 0.1
  National Front John Kingsley Read 90 0 0 0 0 0.4 113,843 + 0.2
  Vanguard William Craig 3 3 0 0 0 0.3 92,262 + 0.1
  DUP Ian Paisley 2 1 0 0 0 0.3 59,451 + 0.1
  Alliance Oliver Napier 5 0 0 0 0 0.2 44,644 + 0.1
  Independent Labour N/A 7 0 0 1 -1 0.2 33,317 + 0.1
  Independent Republican N/A 1 1 1 0 + 1 0.2 32,795 + 0.2
  Republican Clubs Tomás Mac Giolla 5 0 0 0 0 0.1 21,633 + 0.1
  Unionist Party NI Brian Faulkner 2 0 0 0 0 0.1 20,454 N/A
  Communist John Gollan 29 0 0 0 0 0.1 17,426 0.0
  Democratic Labour Dick Taverne 1 0 0 1 - 1 0.1 13,714 + 0.1
  NI Labour Alan Carr 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 11,539 0.0
  Independent N/A 32 0 0 0 0 0.0 8,812 - 0.1
  Independent Ulster Unionist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,982 N/A
  United Democratic James Tippett 13 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,810 N/A
  Independent Conservative N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,559 0.0
  More Prosperous Britain Tom Keen and Harold Smith 25 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,301 0.0
  Workers Revolutionary Gerry Healey 10 0 0 0 0 0.0 3,404 0.0
  Independent Liberal N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 3,277 - 0.2
  Volunteer Political Ken Gibson 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,690 N/A
  Irish Civil Rights 7 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,381 N/A
  People Movement Tony Whittaker 5 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,996 0.0
  Marxist-Leninist (England) John Buckle 8 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,320 0.0
  English National Frank Hansford-Miller 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,115 N/A
  United English National John Kynaston 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 793 N/A
  Marxist-Leninist (Ireland) Carole Reakes 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 540 N/A
  Mebyon Kernow Richard Jenkin 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 384 N/A
  Socialist (GB) None 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 118 N/A

All parties shown.

Government's new majority 3
Total votes cast 29,189,104
Turnout 72.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
  
 39.25%
Conservative
  
 35.8%
Liberal
  
 18.32%
Scottish National
  
 2.88%
Ulster Unionist
  
 0.88%
Plaid Cymru
  
 0.57%
Social Democratic and Labour
  
 0.53%
National Front
  
 0.39%
Independent
  
 0.3%
Others
  
 1.08%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
  
 50.24%
Conservative
  
 43.62%
Liberal
  
 2.05%
Scottish National
  
 1.73%
Ulster Unionist
  
 0.94%
Plaid Cymru
  
 0.47%
Vanguard
  
 0.47%
Others
  
 0.47%

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Liberal

Ulster Unionist Party

Democratic Labour

Independent Labour

Labour

See also

References

  1. ↑ October '74 Election results programme
  2. ↑ October '74 Election results round-up
  3. ↑ Oct '74: Wilson Makes it Four BBC News

Further reading

Manifestos

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