United Kingdom general election, October 1974

United Kingdom general election, October 1974

February 1974 ← members 10 October 1974 Members elected → 1979 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 Bexley North Devon Last election 301 seats, 37.2% 297 seats, 37.9% 14 seats, 19.3% Seats won 319 277 13 Seat change 18 20 1 Popular vote 11,457,079 10,462,565 5,346,704 Percentage 39.2% 35.8% 18.3% Swing 2% 2.1% 1%

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 to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.

The election of February that year had produced an unexpected hung parliament. Coalition talks between the Conservatives and the Liberals 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 miner's 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 government were hindered by the Ulster Unionist Party refusing to take their whip at Westminster in response to the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.

The election saw the Labour Party return 319 MPs, giving them the ability to form a majority government, albeit with a mere 3 seats. The Conservatives and the Liberals each saw their vote share fall, and Conservative leader Edward Heath was ousted as party leader in February 1975 and replaced with future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The Scottish National Party achieved their best ever Westminster representation at this election, winning 11 of Scotland's 71 seats and 30% of the Scottish popular vote. Labour's parliamentary majority eroded in the 1974-1979 parliament, through a series of by-election losses and defections, which led to deals with the Liberals, the Ulster Unionists, the Scottish nationalists and the Welsh nationalists having to be carried out.

This was the last general election to be won by Labour until 1997.

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

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, the campaign was not as exciting or as close 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 and the SNP Devolution was a key issue, and was now also one 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.

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 with only a small majority of 3. The Conservatives won just 36% of the vote, their worst share since 1945, and as for the Liberals a slight drop in the vote saw them make a net loss of 1 seat.

UK general election October 1974
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	623	319	20	2	+ 18	50.236	39.2	11,457,079	+ 2.0
	Conservative	622	277	2	22	- 20	43.622	35.8	10,462,565	- 2.1
	Liberal	619	13	1	2	- 1	2.047	18.3	5,346,704	- 1.0
	SNP	71	11	4	0	+ 4	1.732	2.9	839,617	+ 0.9
	Ulster Unionist	7	6	0	1	- 1	0.944	0.9	256,065	+ 0.1
	Plaid Cymru	36	3	1	0	+ 1	0.472	0.6	166,321	+ 0.1
	SDLP	9	1	0	0	0		0.6	154,193	+ 0.1
	National Front	90	0	0	0	0		0.4	113,843	+ 0.2
	Vanguard	3	3	0	0	0		0.3	92,262	+ 0.1
	Democratic Unionist	2	1	0	0	0		0.3	59,451	+ 0.1
	Alliance	5	0	0	0	0		0.2	44,644	+ 0.1
	Independent Labour	7	0	0	1	-1		0.2	33,317	+ 0.1
	Independent Republican	1	1	1	0	+ 1		0.2	32,795	+ 0.2
	Republican Clubs	5	0	0	0	0		0.1	21,633	+ 0.1
	Unionist Party NI	2	0	0	0	0		0.1	20,454	N/A
	Communist	29	0	0	0	0		0.1	17,426	0.0
	Democratic Labour	1	0	0	1	- 1		0.1	13,714	+ 0.1
	Labour (NI)	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	11,539	0.0
	Independent	32	0	0	0	0		0.0	8,812	- 0.1
	Independent Ulster Unionist	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,982	N/A
	United Democratic	13	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,810	N/A
	Independent Conservative	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,559	0.0
	More Prosperous Britain	25	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,301	0.0
	Workers Revolutionary	10	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,404	0.0
	Independent Liberal	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,277	- 0.2
	Volunteer Political	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	5	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,996	0.0
	Marxist-Leninist (England)	8	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,320	0.0
	English National	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,115	N/A
	United English National	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	793	N/A
	Marxist-Leninist (Ireland)	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	540	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	384	N/A
	Socialist (GB)	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%

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, October 1974.

References

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

Manifestos

• Putting Britain First - Oct 1974 Conservative manifesto.
• Britain Will Win With Labour - Oct 1974 Labour Party manifesto.
• Why Britain Needs Liberal Government - Liberal Party manifesto.