1966 General Election

31 March 1966 · The Postwar Settlement · 630 seats, 316 for a majority

Wilson converted his sliver into a majority of nearly 100, the validation election template later used in 1974 and hoped for in 2017. Labour appeared, briefly, hegemonic.

Prime Minister before

Harold Wilson

Labour

Prime Minister (continued)

Harold Wilson

Labour

Government formed

Labour

majority of 97

Turnout

75.8%

electorate 36,294,689

The result

Labour
Harold Wilson · 48.0%
364
seats
Conservative
Edward Heath · 41.9%
253
seats
Liberal
Jo Grimond · 8.5%
12
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

75.9%

Wales

79.0%

Scotland

76.0%

N. Ireland

66.1%

United Kingdom

75.8%

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

87.5%

North Cornwall, South West

Lowest turnout

48.9%

Down North, Northern Ireland

Biggest single-party share

88.1%

Labour, Abertillery

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Peterborough, East Midlands

London
Conservative 40.9% · most votes in 36Liberal / Lib Dem 9.3% · most votes in 1Labour 49.0% · most votes in 65Other 0.7%
102
seats · turnout 71.8%
North West
Conservative 41.5% · most votes in 25Liberal / Lib Dem 7.6% · most votes in 1Labour 50.4% · most votes in 57Other 0.4%
83
seats · turnout 74.7%
Scotland
Conservative 37.6% · most votes in 20Liberal / Lib Dem 6.8% · most votes in 5Labour 49.9% · most votes in 46SNP / Plaid Cymru 5.0%Other 0.7%
71
seats · turnout 75.9%
South East
Conservative 49.1% · most votes in 49Liberal / Lib Dem 14.4%Labour 35.3% · most votes in 12Other 1.2% · most votes in 1
62
seats · turnout 77.3%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 37.1% · most votes in 15Liberal / Lib Dem 7.3% · most votes in 1Labour 55.3% · most votes in 39Other 0.3%
55
seats · turnout 75.3%
West Midlands
Conservative 44.7% · most votes in 22Liberal / Lib Dem 4.1%Labour 50.7% · most votes in 32Other 0.5%
54
seats · turnout 74.8%
South West
Conservative 45.3% · most votes in 29Liberal / Lib Dem 16.1% · most votes in 3Labour 38.4% · most votes in 11Other 0.1%
43
seats · turnout 80.0%
East of England
Conservative 45.8% · most votes in 26Liberal / Lib Dem 9.5%Labour 44.6% · most votes in 15Other 0.1%
41
seats · turnout 80.7%
East Midlands
Conservative 41.4% · most votes in 13Liberal / Lib Dem 6.4%Labour 52.2% · most votes in 27Other 0.1%
40
seats · turnout 78.0%
Wales
Conservative 27.9% · most votes in 3Liberal / Lib Dem 6.3% · most votes in 1Labour 60.7% · most votes in 32SNP / Plaid Cymru 4.3%Other 0.9%
36
seats · turnout 79.0%
North East
Conservative 34.5% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 2.0%Labour 63.1% · most votes in 27Other 0.4%
31
seats · turnout 75.6%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 61.8% · most votes in 11Liberal / Lib Dem 4.9%Labour 12.2%Other 21.1% · most votes in 1
12
seats · turnout 66.1%
630 of 630 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
75.4%
Aberdare
Labour
73.3%
Aberdeen North
Labour
67.5%
Aberdeen South
Labour
46.0%
Abertillery
Labour
88.1%
Abingdon
Conservative
46.3%
Accrington
Labour
53.0%
Acton
Labour
57.7%
Aldershot
Conservative
48.9%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
48.0%
Anglesey
Labour
55.0%
Antrim North
Conservative
78.1%

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.