1987 General Election

11 June 1987 · Crisis and Thatcherism · 650 seats

A third successive Thatcher victory with the majority barely dented, sealing the Thatcherite settlement. Kinnock's modernisation of Labour had begun but had years to run.

Prime Minister before

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

Margaret Thatcher

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 101

Turnout

75.3%

electorate 43,666,375

The result

Conservative
Margaret Thatcher · 42.2%
376
seats
Labour
Neil Kinnock · 30.8%
229
seats
Alliance
22.6%
22
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

75.4%

Wales

78.9%

Scotland

75.1%

N. Ireland

67.0%

United Kingdom

75.3%

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

84.4%

Brecon & Radnor, Wales

Lowest turnout

55.2%

Antrim East, Northern Ireland

Biggest single-party share

75.9%

Labour, Blaenau Gwent

Tightest main-family margin

0.1 pts

Brecon & Radnor, Wales

London
Conservative 46.5% · most votes in 58Liberal / Lib Dem 21.3% · most votes in 3Labour 31.5% · most votes in 23Other 0.7%
84
seats · turnout 70.7%
North West
Conservative 38.8% · most votes in 37Liberal / Lib Dem 20.4% · most votes in 3Labour 40.6% · most votes in 39Other 0.2%
79
seats · turnout 76.3%
South East
Conservative 56.5% · most votes in 76Liberal / Lib Dem 27.6%Labour 15.5% · most votes in 1Other 0.5%
77
seats · turnout 75.8%
Scotland
Conservative 24.0% · most votes in 10Liberal / Lib Dem 19.2% · most votes in 9Labour 42.4% · most votes in 50SNP / Plaid Cymru 14.0% · most votes in 3Other 0.3%
72
seats · turnout 75.1%
West Midlands
Conservative 45.5% · most votes in 36Liberal / Lib Dem 20.8%Labour 33.3% · most votes in 22Other 0.4%
58
seats · turnout 75.0%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 37.4% · most votes in 21Liberal / Lib Dem 21.7%Labour 40.6% · most votes in 33Other 0.3%
54
seats · turnout 74.5%
East of England
Conservative 52.9% · most votes in 50Liberal / Lib Dem 26.0%Labour 20.7% · most votes in 1Other 0.4%
51
seats · turnout 77.2%
South West
Conservative 50.6% · most votes in 44Liberal / Lib Dem 33.0% · most votes in 3Labour 15.9% · most votes in 1Other 0.5%
48
seats · turnout 78.2%
East Midlands
Conservative 48.6% · most votes in 31Liberal / Lib Dem 21.0%Labour 30.0% · most votes in 11Other 0.4%
42
seats · turnout 77.5%
Wales
Conservative 29.5% · most votes in 8Liberal / Lib Dem 17.9% · most votes in 3Labour 45.1% · most votes in 24SNP / Plaid Cymru 7.3% · most votes in 3Other 0.2%
38
seats · turnout 78.9%
North East
Conservative 29.2% · most votes in 5Liberal / Lib Dem 21.5% · most votes in 1Labour 49.0% · most votes in 24Other 0.3%
30
seats · turnout 74.7%
Northern Ireland
Other 100.0% · most votes in 17
17
seats · turnout 66.2%
650 of 650 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
66.8%
Aberdeen North
Labour
54.7%
Aberdeen South
Labour
37.7%
Aldershot
Conservative
59.0%
Aldridge-Brownhills
Conservative
53.3%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
53.5%
Alyn & Deeside
Labour
48.6%
Amber Valley
Conservative
51.4%
Angus East
SNP / Plaid Cymru
42.4%
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.