List of MPs elected in the February 1974 United Kingdom general election
The forty-sixth Parliament of the United Kingdom was the legislature of the United Kingdom following the February 1974 general election of Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons. Parliament, which consists of the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons, was convened on 12 March 1974 at the Palace of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth II.[1] It was dissolved just over six months later on 20 September 1974, making it the shortest UK parliament in history and the shortest parliament to sit at Westminster since 1681.[2]
44th Parliament | (1966) |
45th Parliament | (1970) |
46th Parliament | (February 1974) |
47th Parliament | (October 1974) |
48th Parliament | (1979) |
Composition
These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the February 1974 general election.
Note: The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru sit together as a party group. This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the Speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time.
Affiliation | Members | |
Labour Party | 301 | |
Conservative Party | 297 | |
Liberal Party | 14 | |
Scottish National Party | 7 | |
Ulster Unionist Party | 7 | |
Plaid Cymru | 2 | |
Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party | 3 | |
Democratic Unionist Party | 1 | |
Social Democratic and Labour Party | 1 | |
Independent Labour | 1 | |
Democratic Labour | 1 | |
Total | 635 | |
Notional Government Majority | Minority (-10) | |
Effective Government Majority | Minority (-17) |
This is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom at the February 1974 general election, held on Thursday 28 February 1974. This was the first of two general elections to be held that year.
Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included: Michael Ancram, Malcolm Rifkind, Robin Cook, Nigel Lawson, Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Ian Gow, Douglas Hurd, Leon Brittan, Dafydd Wigley, Robert Kilroy-Silk, Gordon Wilson, Jeff Rooker, Jonathan Aitken and Alan Clark.
Table of contents:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z By-election |
By-election
See the list of United Kingdom by-elections.
Defections
- 9 July: Greenwich, Woolwich East--Christopher Mayhew defected from Labour to the Liberals
See also
- Category:UK MPs 1974
References
- "THE QUEEN'S SPEECH". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Lords. 12 March 1974. col. 7–12.
- Smith, Alastair (19 July 2004). Election Timing. Cambridge University Press. p. 194. ISBN 0521833639.