1955 General Election

26 May 1955 · The Postwar Settlement · 630 seats, 316 for a majority

Eden, newly succeeding Churchill, became the last PM to increase a governing majority immediately on taking office until 2019. Calm prosperity made it one of the quietest campaigns of the century.

Prime Minister before

Anthony Eden

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

Anthony Eden

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 59

Turnout

76.8%

electorate 35,125,481

The result

Conservative
Anthony Eden · 49.7%
345
seats
Labour
Clement Attlee · 46.4%
277
seats
Liberal
Clement Davies · 2.7%
6
seats

2 further seats went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.

Turnout by nation

England

76.9%

Wales

79.6%

Scotland

75.1%

N. Ireland

74.1%

United Kingdom

76.8%

The result by constituency

All 630 constituencies on the 1955-1970 boundaries, from the House of Commons Library dataset. Search, filter by country or region, and click any column heading to sort.

Highest turnout

92.4%

Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

54.7%

Banff, Scotland

Biggest single-party share

96.8%

Conservative, Down North

Tightest main-family margin

0.2 pts

Plymouth Devonport, South West

London
Conservative 49.2% · most votes in 54Liberal / Lib Dem 2.6%Labour 47.8% · most votes in 48Other 0.3%
102
seats · turnout 74.2%
North West
Conservative 52.0% · most votes in 46Liberal / Lib Dem 2.1% · most votes in 1Labour 45.8% · most votes in 36Other 0.1%
83
seats · turnout 76.8%
Scotland
Conservative 50.1% · most votes in 36Liberal / Lib Dem 1.9% · most votes in 1Labour 46.7% · most votes in 34SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.5%Other 0.9%
71
seats · turnout 75.1%
South East
Conservative 60.2% · most votes in 56Liberal / Lib Dem 2.0%Labour 37.5% · most votes in 6Other 0.2%
62
seats · turnout 76.5%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 44.1% · most votes in 22Liberal / Lib Dem 3.4% · most votes in 1Labour 52.5% · most votes in 32Other 0.1%
55
seats · turnout 77.3%
West Midlands
Conservative 49.2% · most votes in 22Liberal / Lib Dem 1.2%Labour 49.4% · most votes in 32Other 0.2%
54
seats · turnout 75.9%
South West
Conservative 51.0% · most votes in 33Liberal / Lib Dem 8.3%Labour 38.6% · most votes in 9Other 2.1% · most votes in 1
43
seats · turnout 78.8%
East of England
Conservative 53.2% · most votes in 35Liberal / Lib Dem 2.2%Labour 44.6% · most votes in 6
41
seats · turnout 79.3%
East Midlands
Conservative 47.2% · most votes in 17Liberal / Lib Dem 1.3%Labour 51.4% · most votes in 23Other 0.1%
40
seats · turnout 79.6%
Wales
Conservative 29.9% · most votes in 6Liberal / Lib Dem 7.3% · most votes in 3Labour 57.6% · most votes in 27SNP / Plaid Cymru 3.1%Other 2.1%
36
seats · turnout 79.6%
North East
Conservative 41.9% · most votes in 7Liberal / Lib Dem 0.4%Labour 57.7% · most votes in 24
31
seats · turnout 78.5%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 68.5% · most votes in 10Labour 5.5%Other 26.0% · most votes in 2
12
seats · turnout 74.1%
630 of 630 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
69.5%
Aberdare
Labour
75.0%
Aberdeen North
Labour
67.0%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
57.7%
Abertillery
Labour
82.7%
Abingdon
Conservative
54.7%
Accrington
Labour
51.5%
Acton
Labour
50.6%
Aldershot
Conservative
56.7%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
62.2%
Anglesey
Labour
48.4%
Antrim North
Conservative
86.0%

The dataset groups candidates into five party families: Conservative (including Ulster Unionists before February 1974), the Liberal family (Liberal, SDP–Liberal Alliance, Liberal Democrats), Labour, SNP and Plaid Cymru, and all others combined. “Most votes” marks the family with the largest vote in each constituency, not necessarily the seat's winner: the Other column aggregates many parties.