1983 General Election

9 June 1983 · Crisis and Thatcherism · 650 seats

Thatcher, transformed by the Falklands, won a 144-seat landslide over Foot's Labour, whose manifesto was famously called the longest suicide note in history. The SDP-Liberal Alliance took a quarter of the vote but only 23 seats.

Prime Minister before

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 144

Turnout

72.7%

electorate 42,703,516

The result

Conservative
Margaret Thatcher · 42.4%
397
seats
Labour
Michael Foot · 27.6%
209
seats
Alliance
25.4%
23
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

72.5%

Wales

76.1%

Scotland

72.7%

N. Ireland

72.9%

United Kingdom

72.7%

The result by constituency

All 650 constituencies on the 1983-1992 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

51.6%

City Of London & Westminster South, London

Biggest single-party share

70.1%

Labour, Blaenau Gwent

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Leicester South, East Midlands

London
Conservative 43.9% · most votes in 56Liberal / Lib Dem 24.7% · most votes in 2Labour 29.8% · most votes in 26Other 1.6%
84
seats · turnout 67.2%
North West
Conservative 40.5% · most votes in 39Liberal / Lib Dem 23.3% · most votes in 2Labour 35.6% · most votes in 38Other 0.6%
79
seats · turnout 72.3%
South East
Conservative 55.9% · most votes in 76Liberal / Lib Dem 28.9% · most votes in 1Labour 14.5%Other 0.7%
77
seats · turnout 72.2%
Scotland
Conservative 28.4% · most votes in 21Liberal / Lib Dem 24.5% · most votes in 8Labour 35.1% · most votes in 41SNP / Plaid Cymru 11.8% · most votes in 2Other 0.3%
72
seats · turnout 71.8%
West Midlands
Conservative 45.0% · most votes in 36Liberal / Lib Dem 23.4%Labour 31.2% · most votes in 22Other 0.4%
58
seats · turnout 71.7%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 38.7% · most votes in 24Liberal / Lib Dem 25.5% · most votes in 2Labour 35.3% · most votes in 28Other 0.5%
54
seats · turnout 70.2%
East of England
Conservative 51.1% · most votes in 48Liberal / Lib Dem 28.9% · most votes in 1Labour 19.6% · most votes in 2Other 0.4%
51
seats · turnout 73.9%
South West
Conservative 51.4% · most votes in 44Liberal / Lib Dem 33.2% · most votes in 3Labour 14.7% · most votes in 1Other 0.8%
48
seats · turnout 74.5%
East Midlands
Conservative 47.2% · most votes in 34Liberal / Lib Dem 24.1%Labour 28.0% · most votes in 8Other 0.8%
42
seats · turnout 73.4%
Wales
Conservative 31.0% · most votes in 14Liberal / Lib Dem 23.2% · most votes in 2Labour 37.5% · most votes in 20SNP / Plaid Cymru 7.8% · most votes in 2Other 0.4%
38
seats · turnout 75.2%
North East
Conservative 32.3% · most votes in 5Liberal / Lib Dem 25.6% · most votes in 2Labour 42.0% · most votes in 23Other 0.1%
30
seats · turnout 70.2%
Northern Ireland
Other 100.0% · most votes in 17
17
seats · turnout 72.8%
650 of 650 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
58.8%
Aberdeen North
Labour
47.0%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
38.9%
Aldershot
Conservative
55.4%
Aldridge-Brownhills
Conservative
50.7%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
52.5%
Alyn & Deeside
Labour
40.3%
Amber Valley
Conservative
41.7%
Angus East
Conservative
44.1%
Antrim East
Other
100.0%
Antrim North
Other
100.0%
Antrim South
Other
100.0%

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.