October 1974 United Kingdom general election

October 1974 United Kingdom general election

10 October 1974
All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	72.8% (6.0 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Lib 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 2.0% 2.1% 1.0%
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 October 1974 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons. It was the second general election held that year; the first year that two general elections were held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections were held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart.

The election resulted in a narrow victory for the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which won a wafer-thin majority of 3 seats, the narrowest in modern British history. It was to remain the last general election victory for the Labour Party until 1997, with the Conservative Party winning majorities in the next four general elections. It would also be the last time Labour won more seats at a national election than the Conservatives until the 1989 European Parliament election. This remains the most recent General Election that Labour made net gains in seats whilst in government.

The narrowness of the majority meant that the Labour government saw a gradual loss of its majority by 1977 through a series of by-election losses and defections, thus requiring deals with the Liberals, the Ulster Unionists, the Scottish Nationalists and the Welsh Nationalists. It led to the eventual defeat of the government in a no-confidence motion in March 1979, six months before the mandatory dissolution of Parliament was set to take place.

This election was held just seven months after the previous general election, held in February 1974, had led to a hung parliament, with Labour winning 301 seats and the Conservatives left with 297. Following the inconclusive nature of coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the Ulster Unionists, the Labour Leader Harold Wilson went on to form a minority government.

The October campaign was not as vigorous or exciting as the one in February. Despite continuing high inflation, Labour boasted that it had ended the miners' strike, which had dogged Heath's premiership, and had returned some stability. The Conservative Party, led by Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Edward Heath, released a manifesto promoting national unity, but 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.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberals saw their vote share decline, and Heath, who had lost three of the four elections that he contested, was ousted as Conservative 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 in the party's most successful general election result until 2015.

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

Since Jeremy Thorpe's death in December 2014, this is the latest election where all the three major party leaders are deceased.

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, which had dogged Heath was over, and some stability had been restored. After 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, the party's strengths outweighed that of Heath, who knew that his future relied on an election victory. Devolution was a key issue for the Liberals and the Scottish National Party, and it was now one that the two main parties also felt the need to address. The Liberals did not issue a new manifesto but simply reissued the one they had created for the last election.

Timeline

Prime Minister Harold Wilson's decision to call a general election on October 10th 1974 was reported in the newspapers that were dated September 9th 1974 and 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. It was the first time since 1922 that a government had won an overall majority with less than 40% of the vote, but the majority of only three seats. The Conservatives won just under 36% of the vote, their worst share since 1918. A slight drop in the Liberals' vote saw them suffer a net loss of one seat. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party added another 4 seats to their successes in the previous election and became the fourth-largest party.

Turnout was 72.8%, which was a significant decline on the February election's 78.8% turnout.

UK General Election October 1974

All parties shown.

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Harold Wilson	623	319	19	1	+18	50.2	39.2	11,457,079	+2.0
	Conservative	Edward Heath	622	277	2	22	−20	43.6	35.8	10,462,565	−2.1
	Liberal	Jeremy Thorpe	619	13	1	2	−1	2.1	18.3	5,346,704	−1.0
	SNP	William Wolfe	71	11	4	0	+4	1.7	2.9	839,617	+0.9
	UUP	Harry West	7	6	0	1	−1	0.9	0.9	256,065	+0.1
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	36	3	1	0	+1	0.5	0.6	166,321	+0.1
	SDLP	Gerry Fitt	9	1	0	0	0	0.2	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	0.5	0.3	92,262	+0.1
	DUP	Ian Paisley	2	1	0	0	0	0.2	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
	Ind. Republican	N/A	1	1	1	0	+1	0.2	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
	Ind. 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	N/A	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	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)	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	118	N/A

Government's new majority	3
Total votes cast	29,189,104
Turnout	72.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote Labour   39.25% Conservative   35.84% Liberal   18.32% Scottish National   2.88% Others   3.71%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Labour   50.24% Conservative   43.62% Liberal   2.05% Scottish National   1.73% Others   2.36%

Incumbents defeated

Party		Name	Constituency	Office held whilst in Parliament	Year elected	Defeated by	Party
	Conservative	Jock Bruce-Gardyne	Angus South		1964	Andrew Welsh		SNP
		Michael Ancram	Berwick and East Lothian		Feb 1974	John Mackintosh		Labour
		Harold Gurden	Birmingham Selly Oak		1955	Tom Litterick		Labour
		Robert Redmond	Bolton West		1970	Ann Taylor		Labour
		Martin McLaren	Bristol North West		1970	Ronald Thomas		Labour
		Michael Fidler	Bury and Radcliffe		1970	Frank White		Labour
		Barry Henderson	East Dunbartonshire		Feb 1974	Margaret Bain		SNP
		James Allason	Hemel Hempstead		1959	Robin Corbett		Labour
		Tom Iremonger	Ilford North		1954 by-election	Millie Miller		Labour
		Ernle Money	Ipswich		1970	Ken Weetch		Labour
		Tom Boardman	Leicester South	Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1974)	1967 by-election	Jim Marshall		Labour
		Jack d'Avigdor-Goldsmid	Lichfield and Tamworth		1970	Bruce Grocott		Labour
		David Waddington	Nelson and Colne		1968 by-election	Doug Hoyle		Labour
		Montague Woodhouse	Oxford		1970	Evan Luard		Labour
		Ian MacArthur	Perth and East Perthshire		1959	Douglas Crawford		SNP
		Harmar Nicholls	Peterborough		1950	Michael Ward		Labour
		Peggy Fenner	Rochester and Chatham	Parliamentary Under-Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1972–1974)	1970	Robert Bean		Labour
		Ronald Bray	Rossendale		1970	Michael Noble		Labour
		James Hill	Southampton Test		1970	Bryan Gould		Labour
		Piers Dixon	Truro		1970	David Penhaligon		Liberal
		Robert Lindsay	Welwyn and Hatfield	Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (1972–1974)	1955	Helene Hayman		Labour
	Labour	Gwynoro Jones	Carmarthen		1970	Gwynfor Evans		Plaid Cymru
	Liberal	Paul Tyler	Bodmin, Cornwall		Feb 1974	Robert Hicks		Conservative
		Michael Winstanley	Hazel Grove		Feb 1974	Tom Arnold		Conservative
		Christopher Mayhew	Woolwich East (contested Bath)		1951 by-election	Edward Brown		Conservative
	Independent	Eddie Milne	Blyth		1960 by-election	John Ryman		Labour
		Edward Griffiths	Sheffield Brightside		1968 by-election	Joan Maynard		Labour
	UUP	Harry West	Fermanagh and South Tyrone	Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (1974 –1979)	Feb 1974	Frank Maguire		Independent
	Democratic Labour	Dick Taverne	Lincoln	Financial Secretary to the Treasury (1969–1970)	1962 by-election	Margaret Jackson		Labour

See also

• Labour government, 1974–1979
• List of MPs elected in the October 1974 United Kingdom general election
• October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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

Manifestos

• Putting Britain First, October 1974 Conservative Party manifesto
• Britain Will Win With Labour, October 1974 Labour Party manifesto
• Why Britain Needs Liberal Government, October 1974 Liberal Party manifesto