United Kingdom general election, October 1974

10 October 1974

All 635 seats in the House of Commons
318 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

72.8% (

6.0%)

	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	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.

Prime Minister before election

Harold Wilson
Labour

Subsequent Prime Minister

Harold Wilson
Labour

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, its chances of forming a government were hindered by the Ulster Unionist Party refusing to take the Conservative whip at Westminster, in response to the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.

In the election the Labour Party won 319 seats, allowing it 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 30% of the Scottish popular vote and 11 of Scotland's 71 seats, its highest Westminster representation until 2015. Subsequently, Labour's narrow parliamentary majority disappeared by 1977 through a series of by-election losses and defections. It 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 and high balance-of-trade deficits, 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 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. Devolution was a key issue for the Liberals and the Scottish National Party, and was now one that the two main parties also felt the need to address. The Liberals did not issue a new manifesto, simply reissuing the one they had created for the last election.^[3]^[4]

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. In Scotland, the SNP added another 4 seats to their successes in the previous election to become the 4th largest party.

↓
319	277	13	11	15
Labour	Conservative	L	S	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	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

Paul Tyler (Bodmin)
Michael Winstanley (Hazel Grove)
Christopher Mayhew (Woolwich East) - Former Labour MP

Ulster Unionist Party

Harry West (Fermanagh and South Tyrone) - Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

Democratic Labour

Dick Taverne (Lincoln) - Former Labour MP

Independent Labour

Eddie Milne (Blyth) - Former Labour MP
Edward Griffiths (Sheffield Brightside) - Former Labour MP

Labour

Gwynoro Jones (Carmarthen) - Previous majority was just 3 votes

References

↑ Andy JS (8 March 2011). "Election 1974 (October) - Part 1" – via YouTube.
↑ MrElectionist (26 October 2009). "UK General Election 1974 - Results Round-up" – via YouTube.
↑ Oct '74: Wilson Makes it Four BBC News
↑ "BBC Politics 97".

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.

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
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European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1975 2011 2016

United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum, 1975

Results

Referendum question

"Do you think that the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?"

Legislation

Referendum Act 1975

Background

Campaign organisations

Advocating a "Yes" vote	Britain in Europe
Advocating a "No" vote	National Referendum Campaign

Parties

For a "Yes" vote	Conservative Party Liberal Party Social Democratic and Labour Party Alliance Party Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party
Neutral/split	Labour Party
For a "No" vote	Scottish National Party Plaid Cymru Ulster Unionist Party National Front Communist Party of Great Britain

Aftermath

Harold Wilson
Premierships	1964–1970 1974–1976
General elections	1964 1966 1970 February 1974 October 1974
Party elections	1960 1963
Constituencies	Ormskirk Huyton
Resignation Honours	1970 1976
Family	Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx Hon. Robin Wilson
Related articles	Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence Beira Patrol D-notice affair Gnomes of Zürich Harold Wilson conspiracy theories Clockwork Orange Harry letters affair The Lavender List Wilson Doctrine Bibliography
Book Category

Edward Heath
Premiership	1970-1974
General elections	1966 1970 February 1974 October 1974
Party elections	1965 1975
Constituencies	Bexley Sidcup Old Bexley and Sidcup
Related articles	European Community Conservative Government 1970–1974 Father of the House Operation Midland Operation Whistle

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