October 1974 United Kingdom general election

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, 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 the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson winning the narrowest majority recorded, 3 seats. This enabled the remainder of the Labour government, 1974–1979 to take place, which saw a gradual loss of its majority.

October 1974 United Kingdom general election

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 Stood 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 Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

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.

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.

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; each of the next four consecutive general elections produced a Conservative parliamentary majority.

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:

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

↓ 

319	277	13	11	15
Labour	Conservative	Lib	SNP	O

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
	Independent 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 (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)	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   35.8% 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

• Jock Bruce-Gardyne (Angus South)
• Michael Ancram, Earl of Ancram (Berwick and East Lothian)
• Harold Gurden (Birmingham Selly Oak)
• Robert Redmond (Bolton West)
• Martin McLaren (Bristol North West)
• Michael Fidler (Bury and Radcliffe)
• Barry Henderson (East Dunbartonshire)
• James Allason (Hemel Hempstead)
• Tom Iremonger (Ilford North)
• Ernle Money (Ipswich)
• Tom Boardman (Leicester South)
• James d'Avigdor-Goldsmid (Lichfield and Tamworth)
• David Waddington (Nelson and Colne)
• Montague Woodhouse (Oxford)
• Ian MacArthur (Perth and East Perthshire)
• Sir Harmar Nicholls, 1st Baronet (Peterborough)
• Peggy Fenner (Rochester and Chatham)
• Ronald Bray (Rossendale)
• Jock Bruce-Gardyne (South Angus)
• James Hill (Southampton Test)
• Piers Dixon (Truro)
• Robert Lindsay, Lord Balniel (Welwyn and Hatfield), Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs

Liberal

• Paul Tyler (Bodmin)
• Michael Winstanley (Hazel Grove)
• Christopher Mayhew (Woolwich East), former Labour MP contested (Bath) and lost

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 three votes

See also

• Labour Government 1974–79
• List of MPs elected in the October 1974 United Kingdom general election
• October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

References

1. Election 1974 (October) – Part 1 on YouTube, UK General Election 1974 – Results Round-up on YouTube
2. 1974 Oct: Wilson makes it four, BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 8 June 2018
3. "10 October 1974", BBC Politics 97, retrieved 8 June 2018

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