1979 General Election

3 May 1979 · Crisis and Thatcherism · 635 seats, 318 for a majority

After the Winter of Discontent and the first no-confidence defeat of a government since 1924, Thatcher won a 43-seat majority. It began 18 years of Conservative rule and the market revolution that bears her name.

Prime Minister before

James Callaghan

Labour

Prime Minister after

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 44

Turnout

76.0%

electorate 41,572,705

The result

Conservative
Margaret Thatcher · 43.9%
339
seats
Labour
James Callaghan · 36.9%
269
seats
Liberal
David Steel · 13.8%
11
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

75.9%

Wales

79.4%

Scotland

76.8%

N. Ireland

67.7%

United Kingdom

76.0%

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

86.2%

Kingswood, South West

Lowest turnout

53.3%

Stepney & Poplar, London

Biggest single-party share

85.6%

Labour, Cardiff West

Tightest main-family margin

0.1 pts

Bury & Radcliffe, North West

London
Conservative 46.0% · most votes in 50Liberal / Lib Dem 11.9%Labour 39.6% · most votes in 42Other 2.4%
92
seats · turnout 71.5%
North West
Conservative 43.9% · most votes in 32Liberal / Lib Dem 13.0% · most votes in 2Labour 42.5% · most votes in 48Other 0.6%
82
seats · turnout 76.3%
South East
Conservative 56.0% · most votes in 69Liberal / Lib Dem 18.2% · most votes in 1Labour 24.8% · most votes in 2Other 0.9%
72
seats · turnout 76.9%
Scotland
Conservative 31.4% · most votes in 22Liberal / Lib Dem 9.0% · most votes in 3Labour 41.5% · most votes in 44SNP / Plaid Cymru 17.3% · most votes in 2Other 0.8%
71
seats · turnout 76.8%
West Midlands
Conservative 47.1% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 11.5%Labour 40.1% · most votes in 25Other 1.3%
56
seats · turnout 75.3%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 39.3% · most votes in 19Liberal / Lib Dem 14.7% · most votes in 1Labour 45.0% · most votes in 34Other 0.9%
54
seats · turnout 74.5%
East of England
Conservative 51.5% · most votes in 39Liberal / Lib Dem 15.8% · most votes in 1Labour 31.9% · most votes in 5Other 0.9%
45
seats · turnout 78.7%
South West
Conservative 51.6% · most votes in 38Liberal / Lib Dem 22.6% · most votes in 1Labour 24.6% · most votes in 5Other 1.3%
44
seats · turnout 79.1%
East Midlands
Conservative 46.7% · most votes in 24Liberal / Lib Dem 14.2%Labour 38.2% · most votes in 16Other 0.9%
40
seats · turnout 78.0%
Wales
Conservative 32.2% · most votes in 11Liberal / Lib Dem 10.6% · most votes in 1Labour 48.6% · most votes in 22SNP / Plaid Cymru 8.1% · most votes in 2Other 0.5%
36
seats · turnout 79.4%
North East
Conservative 34.2% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 12.2% · most votes in 1Labour 51.8% · most votes in 26Other 1.7%
31
seats · turnout 75.0%
Northern Ireland
Other 100.0% · most votes in 12
12
seats · turnout 66.5%
635 of 635 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
61.7%
Aberdare
Labour
71.5%
Aberdeen North
Labour
59.3%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
40.7%
Abertillery
Labour
76.0%
Abingdon
Conservative
53.7%
Accrington
Labour
48.9%
Acton
Conservative
51.9%
Aldershot
Conservative
57.5%
Aldridge-Brownhill
Conservative
50.3%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
51.6%
Anglesey
Conservative
39.0%

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.