1970 General Election

18 June 1970 · The Postwar Settlement · 630 seats, 316 for a majority

Heath defied virtually every poll to win outright, the biggest opinion-poll failure until 1992. It was the first election with 18-year-olds voting.

Prime Minister before

Harold Wilson

Labour

Prime Minister after

Edward Heath

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 31

Turnout

72.0%

electorate 39,616,505

The result

Conservative
Edward Heath · 46.4%
330
seats
Labour
Harold Wilson · 43.1%
288
seats
Liberal
Jeremy Thorpe · 7.5%
6
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

71.4%

Wales

77.4%

Scotland

74.1%

N. Ireland

76.6%

United Kingdom

72.0%

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

91.4%

Ulster Mid, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

44.9%

Stepney, London

Biggest single-party share

81.4%

Labour, Abertillery

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

King'S Lynn, East of England

London
Conservative 46.6% · most votes in 47Liberal / Lib Dem 7.0%Labour 45.7% · most votes in 55Other 0.7%
102
seats · turnout 64.4%
North West
Conservative 46.7% · most votes in 39Liberal / Lib Dem 7.2%Labour 45.7% · most votes in 44Other 0.4%
83
seats · turnout 71.8%
Scotland
Conservative 38.0% · most votes in 23Liberal / Lib Dem 5.5% · most votes in 3Labour 44.5% · most votes in 44SNP / Plaid Cymru 11.4% · most votes in 1Other 0.6%
71
seats · turnout 74.0%
South East
Conservative 54.5% · most votes in 59Liberal / Lib Dem 12.9%Labour 31.1% · most votes in 2Other 1.5% · most votes in 1
62
seats · turnout 72.8%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 41.5% · most votes in 19Liberal / Lib Dem 7.7%Labour 50.5% · most votes in 36Other 0.3%
55
seats · turnout 71.3%
West Midlands
Conservative 50.5% · most votes in 30Liberal / Lib Dem 4.2%Labour 45.0% · most votes in 24Other 0.4%
54
seats · turnout 69.7%
South West
Conservative 51.1% · most votes in 35Liberal / Lib Dem 14.5% · most votes in 2Labour 34.3% · most votes in 6Other 0.1%
43
seats · turnout 76.2%
East of England
Conservative 52.3% · most votes in 37Liberal / Lib Dem 7.6%Labour 39.9% · most votes in 4Other 0.2%
41
seats · turnout 75.4%
East Midlands
Conservative 47.8% · most votes in 21Liberal / Lib Dem 4.6%Labour 47.1% · most votes in 19Other 0.4%
40
seats · turnout 74.0%
Wales
Conservative 27.7% · most votes in 7Liberal / Lib Dem 6.8% · most votes in 1Labour 51.6% · most votes in 27SNP / Plaid Cymru 11.5%Other 2.4% · most votes in 1
36
seats · turnout 77.4%
North East
Conservative 38.2% · most votes in 5Liberal / Lib Dem 2.2%Labour 59.6% · most votes in 26
31
seats · turnout 71.9%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 54.2% · most votes in 8Liberal / Lib Dem 1.5%Labour 12.6%Other 31.7% · most votes in 4
12
seats · turnout 76.6%
630 of 630 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
67.0%
Aberdare
Labour
60.0%
Aberdeen North
Labour
62.1%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
45.4%
Abertillery
Labour
81.4%
Abingdon
Conservative
54.4%
Accrington
Labour
50.7%
Acton
Labour
48.0%
Aldershot
Conservative
55.8%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
53.2%
Anglesey
Labour
43.2%
Antrim North
Other
48.5%

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.