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1966 United Kingdom general election

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1966 United Kingdom general election
← 1964 31 March 1966 1970 →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons
316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout75.8%, Decrease1.3%
  First party Second party Third party
  File:Jo Grimond.jpg
Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 5 November 1956
Leader's seat Huyton Bexley Orkney & Shetland
Last election 317 seats, 44.1% 304 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 11.2%
Seats won 364 253 12
Seat change Increase47 Decrease51 Increase3
Popular vote 13,096,951 11,418,433 2,327,533
Percentage 48.0% 41.9% 8.5%
Swing Increase3.9% Decrease1.5% Decrease2.7%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election

Harold Wilson
Labour

Prime Minister after election

Harold Wilson
Labour

The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Wilson's decision to call a snap election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last general election where the voting age was 21; Wilson’s government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970.

Background

Prior to the 1966 general election, Labour had performed poorly in 1965 United Kingdom local elections|local elections in 1965, and lost a by-election, cutting their majority to just two. Shortly after the local elections, the leader of the Conservative Party Sir Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath.

The Conservatives had not much time to prepare their campaign, although it was more professional than previously. There had been little time for Heath to become well known among the British public, having led the party for just eight months before the election. For the Liberals, money was an issue: two elections in the space of just two years had left the party in a tight financial position.[1] Labour ran its campaign with the slogan "You know Labour government works".

The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, and was presented by Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan, Sir Robin Day, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. The election was replayed on the BBC Parliament channel on the 40th anniversary of the event[2] and again in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.[3]

Although the BBC's telecast was in black and white, a couple of colour television cameras were placed in the BBC election studio at Television Centre to allow CBS's Charles Collingwood and NBC's David Brinkley to file live reports from that studio by satellite and in colour for their respective networks' evening news programmes (which were transmitted at 11:30 pm British time, 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time).

Timeline

The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, announced on 28 February that Parliament would be dissolved on 10 March, for an election to be held on 31 March. The key dates were as follows:

Thursday 10 March Dissolution of the 43rd Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 21 March Last day to file nomination papers; 1,707 candidates enter to contest 630 seats
Wednesday 30 March Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 31 March Polling day
Friday 1 April The Labour Party wins with an improved majority of 98
Monday 18 April 44th Parliament assembles
Thursday 21 April State Opening of Parliament

National opinion polls summary

  • Research Services: 3% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 101)
  • National opinion polls: 3.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 115)
  • Gallup: 4.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 150)
  • Express (known as Harris): 7.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of in excess of 255)

Results

↓ 
style="background:Template:Labour Party (UK)/meta/color; width:57.8%;" | 364 style="background:Template:Conservative Party (UK)/meta/color; width:40.2%;" | 253 style="color:black; background:Template:Liberal Party (UK)/meta/color; width:2.0%;"| 12 1
Labour Conservative Lib O
UK General Election 1966
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Labour Harold Wilson 622 364 48 1 +47 57.8 48.0 13,096,629 +3.9
  Conservative Edward Heath 629 253 0 51 −51 40.2 41.9 11,418,455 −1.5
  Liberal Jo Grimond 311 12 5 2 +3 1.9 8.5 2,327,457 −2.7
  SNP Arthur Donaldson 23 0 0 0 0 0.5 128,474 +0.3
  Ind. Republican N/A 5 0 0 0 0 0.2 62,782 N/A
  Communist John Gollan 57 0 0 0 0 0.2 62,092 0.0
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 20 0 0 0 0 0.2 61,071 −0.1
  Independent N/A 15 0 0 0 0 0.1 35,039 N/A
  Republican Labour Gerry Fitt 1 1 1 0 +1 0.2 0.1 26,292 0.0
  Nationalist Eddie McAteer 1 0 0 0 0 0.1 22,167 N/A
  Independent Liberal N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,689 N/A
  British National John Bean 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,182 0.0
  Ind. Conservative N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,089 N/A
  Union Movement Oswald Mosley 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,075 N/A
  Independent Labour N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,031 N/A
  Fellowship Ronald Mallone 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 906 0.0
  National Democratic David Brown 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 769 N/A
  National Teenage Screaming Lord Sutch 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 585 N/A
  Ind. Labour Party Emrys Thomas 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 441 0.0
  Socialist (GB) N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 333 0.0
  Radical Alliance Pat Arrowsmith 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 163 N/A
  Patriotic Party Richard Hilton 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 126 0.0
All parties shown.[a]
Government's new majority 98
Total votes cast 27,264,747
Turnout 75.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
 
 48.0%
Conservative and Allies
 
 41.9%
Liberal
 
 8.5%
Independent
 
 0.4%
Others
 
 1.14%
Headline swing: 2.7% to Labour

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
 
 57.8%
Conservative and Allies
 
 40.2%
Liberal
 
 1.9%
Others
 
 0.2%

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

Televised declarations

These declarations were covered live by the BBC where the returning officer was heard to say "duly elected".

From BBC Parliament Replay
Constituency Winning party 1964 Constituency result 1966 by party Winning party 1966
Con Lab Lib PC SNP Others
Cheltenham

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 22,683 19,768

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative hold
Wolverhampton North East

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 12,965 21,067

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Wolverhampton South West

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 21,466 14,881

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative hold
Salford West

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 13,257 19,237

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Salford East

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 9,000 18,409

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Exeter

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 18,613 22,189 4,869

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour gain
Devon North

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FFD700;" data-sort-value="Liberal Party (UK)" |

Liberal 15,631 6,127 16,797

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FFD700;" data-sort-value="Liberal Party (UK)" |

Liberal hold
Smethwick

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 14,550 18,440 508

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour gain
Nelson and Colne

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 13,829 18,406 5,117

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Leyton

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 18,157 26,803 3,851 441

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour recovery
Huyton

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 20,182 41,132 585

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Billericay

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 38,371 40,013 7,587

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour gain
Preston South

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour 17,931 20,720

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour hold
Bexley

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 26,377 24,044 4,405

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative hold
Brentford and Chiswick

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 14,031 14,638 2,063

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour gain
Aberdeenshire West

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 13,956 6,008 15,151

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #FFD700;" data-sort-value="Liberal Party (UK)" |

Liberal gain
Taunton

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 22,359 19,216 5,460

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative hold
Monmouth

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #0087DC;" data-sort-value="Conservative Party (UK)" |

Conservative 25,654 28,619

style="width: 2px; color:inherit; background-color: #E4003B;" data-sort-value="Labour Party (UK)" |

Labour gain
  • The 5,117 votes polled for the "Others" in Nelson and Colne were all polled for Patrick Downey, uncle of Lesley Ann Downey, who had been murdered by the Moors Murderers. Downey advocated the return of hanging.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The Conservative figure includes Ulster Unionists and National Liberals.

References

  1. ^ 1966: Wilson gains mandate, BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 26 May 2018
  2. ^ Election replay 1966, BBC News, 29 March 2006, retrieved 26 May 2018
  3. ^ 1966 General Election, BBC Parliament, retrieved 26 May 2018

Further reading

Manifestos

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