1964 General Election

15 October 1964 · The Postwar Settlement · 630 seats, 316 for a majority

Wilson ended thirteen years of Conservative rule by four seats, framing Labour as the party of the 'white heat' of technology against a grouse-moor establishment. The tiny majority made a second election inevitable.

Prime Minister before

Alec Douglas-Home

Conservative

Prime Minister after

Harold Wilson

Labour

Government formed

Labour

majority of 5

Turnout

77.1%

electorate 35,894,303

The result

Labour
Harold Wilson · 44.1%
317
seats
Conservative
Alec Douglas-Home · 43.4%
304
seats
Liberal
Jo Grimond · 11.2%
9
seats

Turnout by nation

England

77.0%

Wales

80.1%

Scotland

77.6%

N. Ireland

71.7%

United Kingdom

77.1%

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

89.3%

Monmouth, Wales

Lowest turnout

51.3%

Stepney, London

Biggest single-party share

90.1%

Conservative, Antrim North

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Brighton Kemptown, South East

London
Conservative 42.3% · most votes in 48Liberal / Lib Dem 12.5% · most votes in 1Labour 44.5% · most votes in 53Other 0.7%
102
seats · turnout 71.6%
North West
Conservative 43.1% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 10.6%Labour 45.9% · most votes in 52Other 0.4%
83
seats · turnout 77.2%
Scotland
Conservative 40.6% · most votes in 24Liberal / Lib Dem 7.6% · most votes in 4Labour 48.7% · most votes in 43SNP / Plaid Cymru 2.4%Other 0.6%
71
seats · turnout 77.6%
South East
Conservative 50.5% · most votes in 54Liberal / Lib Dem 16.9%Labour 32.5% · most votes in 8Other 0.1%
62
seats · turnout 77.6%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 39.2% · most votes in 18Liberal / Lib Dem 10.9%Labour 49.7% · most votes in 37Other 0.2%
55
seats · turnout 77.5%
West Midlands
Conservative 46.8% · most votes in 26Liberal / Lib Dem 7.8%Labour 45.2% · most votes in 28Other 0.3%
54
seats · turnout 76.0%
South West
Conservative 45.0% · most votes in 34Liberal / Lib Dem 20.4% · most votes in 2Labour 34.1% · most votes in 7Other 0.6%
43
seats · turnout 79.7%
East of England
Conservative 46.6% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 12.9%Labour 40.4% · most votes in 10Other 0.1%
41
seats · turnout 80.8%
East Midlands
Conservative 42.5% · most votes in 16Liberal / Lib Dem 9.8%Labour 47.6% · most votes in 24Other 0.1%
40
seats · turnout 80.0%
Wales
Conservative 29.5% · most votes in 6Liberal / Lib Dem 7.3% · most votes in 2Labour 57.7% · most votes in 28SNP / Plaid Cymru 4.8%Other 0.6%
36
seats · turnout 80.3%
North East
Conservative 37.6% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 3.9%Labour 58.4% · most votes in 27Other 0.1%
31
seats · turnout 78.8%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 63.0% · most votes in 12Liberal / Lib Dem 2.7%Labour 16.1%Other 18.2%
12
seats · turnout 71.8%
630 of 630 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
72.1%
Aberdare
Labour
77.4%
Aberdeen North
Labour
68.9%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
51.7%
Abertillery
Labour
85.9%
Abingdon
Conservative
48.0%
Accrington
Labour
49.7%
Acton
Labour
49.3%
Aldershot
Conservative
52.0%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
46.8%
Anglesey
Labour
48.2%
Antrim North
Conservative
90.1%

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.