1997 General Election

The New Labour landslide

1 May 1997 · New Labour · 659 seats

Blair's New Labour ended 18 years of Conservative government with a 179-seat majority, the party's largest ever. The Conservatives fell to their worst result of the century and were wiped out in Scotland and Wales.

Prime Minister before

John Major

Conservative

Prime Minister after

Tony Blair

Labour

Government formed

Labour

majority of 178

Turnout

71.4%

electorate 43,846,152

The result

Labour
Tony Blair · 43.2%
418
seats
Conservative
John Major · 30.6%
165
seats
Liberal Democrats
Paddy Ashdown · 16.8%
46
seats

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

Turnout by nation

England

71.4%

Wales

73.5%

Scotland

71.3%

N. Ireland

67.1%

United Kingdom

71.4%

The result by constituency

All 659 constituencies on the 1997-2001 boundaries, from the House of Commons Library dataset. Search, filter by country or region, and click any column heading to sort.

Highest turnout

85.8%

Mid Ulster, Northern Ireland

Lowest turnout

51.6%

Liverpool Riverside, North West

Biggest single-party share

82.9%

Labour, Bootle

Tightest main-family margin

0.0 pts

Winchester, South East

South East
Conservative 41.9% · most votes in 54Liberal / Lib Dem 23.3% · most votes in 7Labour 29.1% · most votes in 22Other 5.7%
83
seats · turnout 73.5%
North West
Conservative 27.6% · most votes in 9Liberal / Lib Dem 14.5% · most votes in 2Labour 53.6% · most votes in 64Other 4.4% · most votes in 1
76
seats · turnout 70.2%
London
Conservative 31.2% · most votes in 11Liberal / Lib Dem 14.6% · most votes in 6Labour 49.5% · most votes in 57Other 4.7%
74
seats · turnout 67.6%
Scotland
Conservative 17.5%Liberal / Lib Dem 13.0% · most votes in 10Labour 45.6% · most votes in 56SNP / Plaid Cymru 22.1% · most votes in 6Other 1.9%
72
seats · turnout 71.3%
West Midlands
Conservative 33.7% · most votes in 14Liberal / Lib Dem 13.8% · most votes in 1Labour 47.0% · most votes in 43Other 5.5% · most votes in 1
59
seats · turnout 70.9%
East of England
Conservative 39.5% · most votes in 33Liberal / Lib Dem 17.1% · most votes in 1Labour 38.6% · most votes in 22Other 4.8%
56
seats · turnout 74.2%
Yorkshire and the Humber
Conservative 28.0% · most votes in 7Liberal / Lib Dem 16.0% · most votes in 2Labour 51.9% · most votes in 47Other 4.1%
56
seats · turnout 68.3%
South West
Conservative 36.7% · most votes in 22Liberal / Lib Dem 31.3% · most votes in 14Labour 26.4% · most votes in 15Other 5.5%
51
seats · turnout 75.0%
East Midlands
Conservative 34.9% · most votes in 14Liberal / Lib Dem 13.6%Labour 47.8% · most votes in 30Other 3.7%
44
seats · turnout 73.2%
Wales
Conservative 19.6%Liberal / Lib Dem 12.3% · most votes in 2Labour 54.7% · most votes in 34SNP / Plaid Cymru 9.9% · most votes in 4Other 3.4%
40
seats · turnout 73.5%
North East
Conservative 19.8% · most votes in 1Liberal / Lib Dem 12.6% · most votes in 1Labour 64.0% · most votes in 28Other 3.6%
30
seats · turnout 68.5%
Northern Ireland
Other 100.0% · most votes in 18
18
seats · turnout 67.1%
659 of 659 constituencies
Aberavon
Labour
71.3%
Aberdeen Central
Labour
49.8%
Aberdeen North
Labour
47.9%
Aberdeen South
Labour
35.3%
Airdrie & Shotts
Labour
61.8%
Aldershot
Conservative
42.7%
Aldridge-Brownhills
Conservative
47.1%
Altrincham & Sale West
Conservative
43.2%
Alyn & Deeside
Labour
61.9%
Amber Valley
Labour
54.7%
Angus
SNP / Plaid Cymru
48.3%
Argyll & Bute
Liberal / Lib Dem
40.2%

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.