United Kingdom general election, October 1974

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   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Party Labour Conservative Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 Leader's seat Huyton Sidcup Last election 301 seats, 37.2% 297 seats, 37.9% Seats won 319 277 Seat change 18 20 Popular vote 11,457,079 10,462,565 Percentage 39.2% 35.8% Swing 2.0% 2.1%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jeremy Thorpe William Wolfe Party Liberal SNP Leader since 18 January 1967 1 June 1969 Leader's seat North Devon Ran in West Lothian (lost) Last election 14 seats, 19.3% 7 seats, 2.0% Seats won 13 11 Seat change 1 4 Popular vote 5,346,704 839,617 Percentage 18.3% 2.9% Swing 1.0% 0.9%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Appointed Prime Minister Harold Wilson Labour

The October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the British House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year, and the first year that two general elections were held in a single year since 1910, 64 years earlier. The election resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson winning a narrow 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.

At the election, the Labour Party won 319 seats, allowing it to form a majority government, albeit with a narrow majority of only 3. The Conservatives and the Liberals each saw their vote share decline, and Conservative Party 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; it was their most successful general election result until 2015, where they won 56 of 59 Scottish seats and replaced the Liberal Democrats as the third largest party.

Subsequently, Labour's narrow parliamentary majority had 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 victory for the Labour Party until 1997; the next four consecutive general 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]

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.^[2][3]

Timeline

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:

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.

Incumbents defeated

See also

• Labour Government 1974–79
• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, October 1974

References

Further reading

• Butler, David E.; et al. (1975), The British General Election of October 1974, the standard scholarly study
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979