October 1974 General Election

10 October 1974 · Crisis and Thatcherism · 635 seats, 318 for a majority

Wilson's validation election, the second of the year, produced a majority of just three. The winter's two campaigns marked the peak of Liberal and SNP insurgency and the end of majority-rule certainty.

Prime Minister before

Harold Wilson

Labour

Prime Minister (continued)

Harold Wilson

Labour

Government formed

Labour

majority of 4

Turnout

72.8%

electorate 40,255,611

The result

Labour
Harold Wilson · 39.2%
319
seats
Conservative
Edward Heath · 35.8%
277
seats
Liberal
Jeremy Thorpe · 18.3%
13
seats
SNP
Billy Wolfe · 2.9%
11
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

72.6%

Wales

76.6%

Scotland

74.8%

N. Ireland

67.7%

United Kingdom

72.8%

The result by constituency

All 635 constituencies on the 1974-1979 boundaries, from the House of Commons Library dataset. Search, filter by country or region, and click any column heading to sort.

Highest turnout

88.6%

Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

50.0%

Chelsea, London

Biggest single-party share

80.2%

Labour, Liverpool Scotland

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Dunbartonshire East, Scotland

London
Conservative 37.4% · most votes in 41Liberal / Lib Dem 17.0%Labour 43.9% · most votes in 51Other 1.8%
92
seats · turnout 66.4%
North West
Conservative 37.2% · most votes in 26Liberal / Lib Dem 17.9% · most votes in 1Labour 44.5% · most votes in 55Other 0.4%
82
seats · turnout 73.3%
South East
Conservative 46.8% · most votes in 63Liberal / Lib Dem 24.3% · most votes in 1Labour 28.4% · most votes in 8Other 0.6%
72
seats · turnout 74.5%
Scotland
Conservative 24.7% · most votes in 16Liberal / Lib Dem 8.3% · most votes in 3Labour 36.3% · most votes in 41SNP / Plaid Cymru 30.4% · most votes in 11Other 0.3%
71
seats · turnout 74.8%
West Midlands
Conservative 37.5% · most votes in 21Liberal / Lib Dem 17.8%Labour 43.9% · most votes in 35Other 0.8%
56
seats · turnout 72.1%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 32.5% · most votes in 15Liberal / Lib Dem 19.9% · most votes in 1Labour 46.8% · most votes in 38Other 0.8%
54
seats · turnout 71.2%
East of England
Conservative 42.1% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 21.6% · most votes in 1Labour 36.2% · most votes in 13Other 0.2%
45
seats · turnout 75.3%
South West
Conservative 43.4% · most votes in 33Liberal / Lib Dem 27.4% · most votes in 3Labour 28.9% · most votes in 8Other 0.4%
44
seats · turnout 77.0%
East Midlands
Conservative 38.5% · most votes in 19Liberal / Lib Dem 18.3%Labour 41.8% · most votes in 21Other 1.4%
40
seats · turnout 74.9%
Wales
Conservative 23.9% · most votes in 8Liberal / Lib Dem 15.5% · most votes in 2Labour 49.5% · most votes in 23SNP / Plaid Cymru 10.8% · most votes in 3Other 0.2%
36
seats · turnout 76.6%
North East
Conservative 28.1% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 16.4% · most votes in 1Labour 53.9% · most votes in 26Other 1.6%
31
seats · turnout 70.8%
Northern Ireland
Other 100.0% · most votes in 12
12
seats · turnout 68.1%
635 of 635 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
62.8%
Aberdare
Labour
63.3%
Aberdeen North
Labour
50.9%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
35.5%
Abertillery
Labour
75.9%
Abingdon
Conservative
46.6%
Accrington
Labour
49.2%
Acton
Conservative
45.2%
Aldershot
Conservative
45.1%
Aldridge-Brownhill
Labour
43.5%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
42.8%
Anglesey
Labour
41.6%

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.