1959 General Election

8 October 1959 · The Postwar Settlement · 630 seats, 316 for a majority

Macmillan's 'never had it so good' era delivered a third successive Conservative victory with an enlarged majority of 100. Commentators wondered if Labour could ever win again.

Prime Minister before

Harold Macmillan

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

Harold Macmillan

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 99

Turnout

78.7%

electorate 35,397,283

The result

Conservative
Harold Macmillan · 49.4%
365
seats
Labour
Hugh Gaitskell · 43.8%
258
seats
Liberal
Jo Grimond · 5.9%
6
seats

1 further seat went to parties and independents outside the main contenders listed above.

Turnout by nation

England

78.9%

Wales

82.6%

Scotland

78.1%

N. Ireland

65.9%

United Kingdom

78.7%

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

87.9%

Accrington, North West

Lowest turnout

56.4%

Down South, Northern Ireland

Biggest single-party share

98.0%

Conservative, Down North

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

South East Derbyshire, East Midlands

London
Conservative 49.3% · most votes in 60Liberal / Lib Dem 7.0%Labour 43.3% · most votes in 42Other 0.4%
102
seats · turnout 75.6%
North West
Conservative 50.3% · most votes in 44Liberal / Lib Dem 4.6% · most votes in 1Labour 44.9% · most votes in 38Other 0.1%
83
seats · turnout 79.5%
Scotland
Conservative 47.2% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 4.1% · most votes in 1Labour 46.7% · most votes in 38SNP / Plaid Cymru 0.8%Other 1.2% · most votes in 1
71
seats · turnout 78.1%
South East
Conservative 59.0% · most votes in 58Liberal / Lib Dem 7.5%Labour 33.5% · most votes in 4
62
seats · turnout 78.3%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 44.5% · most votes in 23Liberal / Lib Dem 5.0% · most votes in 1Labour 50.4% · most votes in 31Other 0.1%
55
seats · turnout 79.8%
West Midlands
Conservative 50.7% · most votes in 29Liberal / Lib Dem 3.2%Labour 45.9% · most votes in 25Other 0.2%
54
seats · turnout 77.9%
South West
Conservative 50.2% · most votes in 35Liberal / Lib Dem 15.0% · most votes in 1Labour 34.7% · most votes in 7Other 0.1%
43
seats · turnout 80.8%
East of England
Conservative 51.5% · most votes in 36Liberal / Lib Dem 8.5%Labour 39.9% · most votes in 5Other 0.2%
41
seats · turnout 81.2%
East Midlands
Conservative 47.4% · most votes in 20Liberal / Lib Dem 4.0%Labour 48.6% · most votes in 20Other 0.1%
40
seats · turnout 81.3%
Wales
Conservative 32.6% · most votes in 7Liberal / Lib Dem 5.3% · most votes in 2Labour 56.4% · most votes in 27SNP / Plaid Cymru 5.2%Other 0.5%
36
seats · turnout 82.6%
North East
Conservative 41.9% · most votes in 10Liberal / Lib Dem 1.5%Labour 56.7% · most votes in 21
31
seats · turnout 81.2%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 77.2% · most votes in 12Liberal / Lib Dem 0.6%Labour 7.7%Other 14.5%
12
seats · turnout 65.8%
630 of 630 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
65.8%
Aberdare
Labour
75.6%
Aberdeen North
Labour
64.4%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
53.8%
Abertillery
Labour
85.0%
Abingdon
Conservative
54.2%
Accrington
Labour
50.7%
Acton
Conservative
51.2%
Aldershot
Conservative
58.4%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
56.0%
Anglesey
Labour
47.0%
Antrim North
Conservative
94.9%

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.