1992 General Election

9 April 1992 · Crisis and Thatcherism · 651 seats, 326 for a majority

Major won the most votes ever cast for a British party against poll predictions of a hung parliament, the 'Sheffield rally' election. The victory proved poisoned: Black Wednesday broke the government's reputation within months.

Prime Minister before

John Major

Conservative

Prime Minister (continued)

John Major

Conservative

Government formed

Conservative

majority of 21

Turnout

77.7%

electorate 43,724,886

The result

Conservative
John Major · 41.9%
336
seats
Labour
Neil Kinnock · 34.4%
271
seats
Liberal Democrats
Paddy Ashdown · 17.8%
20
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

78.0%

Wales

79.7%

Scotland

75.5%

N. Ireland

69.8%

United Kingdom

77.7%

The result by constituency

All 651 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

86.1%

Leicestershire North West, East Midlands

Lowest turnout

53.9%

Peckham, London

Biggest single-party share

79.0%

Labour, Blaenau Gwent

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Bristol North West, South West

London
Conservative 45.4% · most votes in 48Liberal / Lib Dem 15.9% · most votes in 1Labour 37.1% · most votes in 35Other 1.7%
84
seats · turnout 73.7%
North West
Conservative 38.4% · most votes in 29Liberal / Lib Dem 15.8% · most votes in 2Labour 44.3% · most votes in 48Other 1.5%
79
seats · turnout 77.5%
South East
Conservative 54.9% · most votes in 76Liberal / Lib Dem 24.7%Labour 18.9% · most votes in 2Other 1.5%
78
seats · turnout 79.8%
Scotland
Conservative 25.7% · most votes in 11Liberal / Lib Dem 13.1% · most votes in 9Labour 39.0% · most votes in 49SNP / Plaid Cymru 21.5% · most votes in 3Other 0.8%
72
seats · turnout 75.4%
West Midlands
Conservative 44.8% · most votes in 29Liberal / Lib Dem 15.0%Labour 38.8% · most votes in 29Other 1.5%
58
seats · turnout 78.2%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 37.9% · most votes in 20Liberal / Lib Dem 16.8%Labour 44.3% · most votes in 34Other 0.9%
54
seats · turnout 75.4%
East of England
Conservative 52.6% · most votes in 47Liberal / Lib Dem 19.8%Labour 26.4% · most votes in 4Other 1.2%
51
seats · turnout 80.8%
South West
Conservative 47.6% · most votes in 38Liberal / Lib Dem 31.4% · most votes in 6Labour 19.2% · most votes in 4Other 1.8%
48
seats · turnout 81.1%
East Midlands
Conservative 46.6% · most votes in 28Liberal / Lib Dem 15.3%Labour 37.4% · most votes in 14Other 0.7%
42
seats · turnout 80.6%
Wales
Conservative 28.6% · most votes in 6Liberal / Lib Dem 12.4% · most votes in 1Labour 49.5% · most votes in 27SNP / Plaid Cymru 9.0% · most votes in 4Other 0.5%
38
seats · turnout 79.7%
North East
Conservative 30.8% · most votes in 4Liberal / Lib Dem 15.5% · most votes in 1Labour 53.4% · most votes in 25Other 0.4%
30
seats · turnout 75.6%
Northern Ireland
Conservative 5.7%Other 94.3% · most votes in 17
17
seats · turnout 69.7%
651 of 651 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
67.1%
Aberdeen North
Labour
47.0%
Aberdeen South
Conservative
38.5%
Aldershot
Conservative
57.5%
Aldridge-Brownhills
Conservative
54.3%
Altrincham & Sale
Conservative
54.7%
Alyn & Deeside
Labour
52.0%
Amber Valley
Conservative
46.1%
Angus East
SNP / Plaid Cymru
40.1%
Antrim East
Other
91.4%
Antrim North
Other
95.0%
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.