United Kingdom general election, February 1974

United Kingdom general election, February 1974

1970 ← members 28 February 1974 Members elected → October 1974 members

All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority   First party Second party Third party   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 288 seats, 43.1% 330 seats, 46.4% 6 seats, 7.5% Seats before 281 334 6 Seats won 301 297 14 Seat change 13 33 8 Popular vote 11,645,616 11,872,180 6,059,519 Percentage 37.2% 37.9% 19.3% Swing 5.9% 8.5% 11.8%

PM before election Edward Heath Conservative Subsequent PM Harold Wilson Labour

1966 election • MPs

1970 election • MPs

February 1974 election • MPs

October 1974 election • MPs

1979 election • MPs

The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party, instead producing a hung parliament. The result of the hung parliament came as a total surprise to the three main party leaders, the country (who were confused as to the constitutional process of the unexpected hung parliament^{[citation needed]}) and also to HM Queen Elizabeth II, who was flying back from Australia at the time of the election as many people had expected a Conservative victory for Edward Heath. The hung parliament resulted in Labour being the largest overall party with 301 seats (17 seats short of an overall majority) with the Conservatives on 297 seats, although the Conservatives had a larger share of the popular vote.

This election saw Northern Ireland diverging heavily from the rest of the United Kingdom, with all twelve MPs elected being from local parties (eleven of them representing unionist parties), following the decision of the Ulster Unionists to withdraw support from the Conservative Party in protest over the Sunningdale Agreement. In contrast the Scottish National Party achieved significant success in this election. They increased their share of the popular vote, in Scotland, from 11% to 22% and their number of MPs rose from 1 to 7. It also saw the first Plaid Cymru MPs to be elected in a general election in Wales (they had previously won a by-election).

Although the incumbent Conservative government of Edward Heath polled the most votes by a small margin, the Conservatives were overtaken in terms of Commons seats by Harold Wilson's Labour Party due to a more efficiently-distributed Labour vote, and the decision by Ulster Unionist MPs not to take the Conservative whip.

The two largest parties both lost a considerable share of the popular vote, largely to the Liberals under Jeremy Thorpe who polled two and a half times the share of the national vote compared to the previous election. But even with over six million votes the Liberals elected only 14 MPs, polling the most votes (~432,823) ever collected by a party for each MP elected in a general election. There had been some media expectation that the Liberals could take twice as many seats.

Heath did not resign immediately as Prime Minister. Assuming that Northern Ireland's unionist MPs could be persuaded to support a Conservative government on confidence matters over one led by Wilson, he entered into negotiations with Thorpe to form a coalition government. Thorpe, never enthusiastic about supporting the Conservatives, demanded major electoral reforms in exchange for such an agreement. Unwilling to accept such terms, Heath resigned and Wilson returned for his second spell as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

The fact that the Liberals did not have sufficient seats to be able to support a government led by either major party on their own made the formation of a stable government in this Parliament a practical impossibility. Wilson would call another election in October of the same year.

The election night was covered live on the BBC, and presented by Alastair Burnet, David Butler, Robert McKenzie and Robin Day.

Campaign

Heath's calling of the election was directly influenced by the industrial issues of the time. His call to "return a strong government with a firm mandate" was met with uncertainty. Despite being the shortest post-war election campaign, it could not have been described as a dull occasion. Due to the past economic records of Labour and the Conservatives respectively, many voters seriously considered supporting the Liberals, who saw a significant increase in popularity during the campaign. The Conservative campaign, which had initially focused on industry, got off to shaky start, with a collection of bad reports on prices and inflation. Heath was also in the unique position of not only fighting a political campaign against the other political parties, but also against the National Union of Mineworkers. This not only put the Conservatives in a tight position, but also the Labour party, who had traditional party links with many unions. As a result of this Wilson tried to portray Labour as more of a negotiator. Also to feature in Labour's campaign was the promise of a vote on the UK's membership of the EEC, which Britain had joined in 1972 under Heath.

Economic background

It was the first general election in the United Kingdom to be held during an economic crisis since the 1931 election, which had been held in the depths of the Great Depression.

Timeline

The Prime Minister Edward Heath announced on the afternoon of 7 February that Parliament would be dissolved on 8 February, for an election to be held on 28 February, using the slogan "Who Governs Britain?". As the Queen was away in New Zealand at the time the Prime Minister notified her of his intentions by telegram rather that the protocol of visiting Buckingham Palace. The key dates were as follows:

Friday 8 February	Dissolution of the 45th parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 18 February	Last day to file nomination papers; 2,135 candidates enter to contest 635 seats
Wednesday 27 February	Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 28 February	Polling day
Friday 1 March	Election results in a hung parliament with Labour narrowly ahead as the largest single party but short of a majority
Sunday 3 March	Edward Heath begins meetings with Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe to discuss the terms of a potential coalition
Monday 4 March	Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath resigns shortly after the Liberals reject his coalition terms, allowing Harold Wilson to return to power as leader of a Labour minority government
Wednesday 6 March	46th parliament assembles
Tuesday 12 March	State Opening of Parliament

Results

This election was fought on new constituency boundaries with 5 more seats added to the 630 used in 1970. This led to many seats changing hands on the new notional boundaries.

For the first time since 1929 the two largest political parties had received less than a combined share of 80% of the vote, and the Liberals had also won more than 10% of the vote.

United Kingdom general election February 1974
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	623	297	5	42	- 37	46.771	37.9	11,872,180	- 8.5
	Labour	623	301	34	14	+ 20	47.401	37.2	11,645,616	- 5.9
	Liberal	517	14	8	0	+ 8	2.204	19.3	6,059,519	+ 11.8
	SNP	70	7	6	0	+ 6	1.102	2.0	633,180	+ 0.9
	Ulster Unionist	7	7	1	2	- 1	1.102	0.8	232,103	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	36	2	2	0	+ 2	0.314	0.5	171,374	- 0.1
	SDLP	12	1	1	0	+ 1	0.157	0.5	160,137	N/A
	Pro-Assembly Unionist	7	0	0	0	0		0.3	94,301	N/A
	National Front	54	0	0	0	0		0.2	76,865	+ 0.1
	Vanguard	3	3	3	0	+ 3		0.2	75,944	N/A
	Democratic Unionist	2	1	1	0	+1		0.2	58,656	+ 0.1
	Independent Liberal	8	0	0	0	0		0.2	38,437	+ 0.2
	Communist	44	0	0	0	0		0.1	32,743	0.0
	Independent Labour	6	1	1	1	0		0.1	29,892	0.0
	Alliance	3	0	0	0	0		0.1	22,660	N/A
	Independent	43	0	0	0	0		0.1	18,180	0.0
	Unity	2	0	0	2	- 2		0.0	17,593	- 0.4
	Independent Socialist	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	17,300	N/A
	Labour (NI)	5	0	0	0	0		0.0	17,284	N/A
	Republican Clubs	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	15,152	N/A
	Democratic Labour	1	1	1	0	+ 1		0.0	14,780	N/A
	Independent Conservative	18	0	0	0	0		0.0	11,451	- 0.1
	Independent Republican	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,662	N/A
	People Movement	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,576	N/A
	Workers Revolutionary	9	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,191	N/A
	Social Democracy	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,646	N/A
	Independent Democratic	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,976	N/A
	Marxist-Leninist (England)	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,419	N/A
	National Independence	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,373	N/A
	National Democratic	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,161	- 0.1
	Ind. Labour Party	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	991	0.0
	Mebyon Kernow	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	850	0.0
	International Marxist	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	716	N/A
	British Movement	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	711	0.0
	Independent Social Democrat	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	661	N/A
	Wessex Regionalist	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	521	N/A
	Independent Democrat	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	386	N/A
	More Prosperous Britain	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	234	N/A
	National Independent	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	229	N/A
	John Hampden New Freedom	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	203	N/A

All parties are shown.

Government's new majority	- 33
Total votes cast	31,321,982
Turnout	78.8%

Results based on the notional 1970 results on the boundaries which came into force in 1974. The seats won by the Ulster Unionists are compared with those won by Unionist MPs in the 1970 election. The Protestant Unionist Party became the core of the Democratic Unionist Party and their candidates are compared with the result of the Protestant Unionist in 1970. The sole Republican Labour Party MP elected in 1970 subsequently left that party to co-found the Social Democrat and Labour Party in 1970 and the remains of the party disintegrated by 1974.

Votes summary

Popular vote
Conservative			37.90%
Labour			37.18%
Liberal			19.35%
Scottish National			2.02%
Ulster Unionist			0.74%
Plaid Cymru			0.55%
Social Democratic and Labour			0.51%
Independent			0.40%
Others			1.35%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative			46.77%
Labour			47.40%
Liberal			2.20%
Scottish National			1.10%
Ulster Unionist			1.10%
Plaid Cymru			0.31%
Social Democratic and Labour			0.16%
Vanguard			0.47%
Democratic Unionist			0.16%
Independent Labour			0.16%
Democratic Labour			0.16%

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, February 1974

References

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
• United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Manifestos

• Firm action for a fair Britain - February 1974 Conservative manifesto
• Let us work together - Labour's way out of the crisis - February 1974 Labour Party manifesto
• Change the face of Britain - Liberal Party manifesto