United Kingdom general election, 1974 (February)

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	First Party	Second Party	Third Party
‹ 1970 • members members • 1974 ›
United Kingdom general election, February 1974 All 635 seats to the House of Commons
28 February 1974

Leader	Harold Wilson	Edward Heath	Jeremy Thorpe
Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal
Leader since	14 February 1963	28 July 1965	18 January 1967
Leader's seat	Huyton	Bexley	North Devon
Last election	288 seats, 43.1%	330 seats, 46.4%	6 seats, 7.5%
Seats won	301	297	14
Seat change	+13	-33	+8
Popular vote	11,645,616	11,872,180	6,059,519
Percentage	37.2%	37.9%	19.3%
Swing	%	%	%

Incumbent PM Edward Heath Conservative PM-Elect Edward Heath Conservative

1966 election • MPs
1970 election • MPs
February 1974 election • MPs
October 1974 election • MPs
1979 election • MPs

The UK general election of February 1974 was held on 28 February 1974. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the only election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party, instead producing a hung parliament. The incumbent Conservative government of Edward Heath polled the most votes by a small margin, but the Tories were overtaken in terms of Commons seats by Harold Wilson's Labour Party due to the decision by Ulster Unionist MPs not to take the Conservative whip. After failed negotiations between Heath and Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe, Heath resigned and Wilson returned for his second spell as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He would call another election in October of the same year.

This election saw Northern Ireland diverging heavily from the rest of the UK, with all twelve MPs elected being from local parties, following the decision of the Ulster Unionists to withdraw support from the Conservative Party in protest over the Sunningdale Agreement. It also saw the first Plaid Cymru MPs to be elected in a general election, in Wales (they had previously won a by-election).

1 Results
- 1.1 Votes summary
- 1.2 Seats summary
2 References
3 See also
4 Manifestos

Results

UK General Election February 1974
		Seats						Votes
Party		Contested	Won	Gained	Lost	Net	%	Vote %	Votes	Net %
	Conservative	623	297	2	35	- 33	46.771	37.9	11,872,180	- 8.5
	Labour	623	301	22	9	+ 13	47.401	37.2	11,645,616	- 5.9
	Liberal	517	14	8	0	+ 8	2.204	19.3	6,059,519	+ 11.8
	Scottish National Party	70	7	6	0	+ 6	1.102	2.0	633,180	+ 0.9
	Ulster Unionist	7	7	1	2	- 1	1.102	0.8	232,103	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	36	2	2	0	+ 2	0.314	0.5	171,374	- 0.1
	Social Democratic and Labour	12	1	1	0	+ 1	0.157	0.5	160,137	N/A
	Pro-Assembly Unionist	7	0	0	0	0		0.3	94,301	N/A
	National Front	54	0	0	0	0		0.2	76,865	+ 0.1
	Vanguard	3	3	3	0	+ 3		0.2	75,944	N/A
	Democratic Unionist	2	1	0	0	0		0.2	58,656	+ 0.1
	Independent Liberal	8	0	0	0	0		0.2	38,437	+ 0.2
	Communist	44	0	0	0	0		0.1	32,743	0.0
	Independent Labour	6	1	1	1	0		0.1	29,892	0.0
	Alliance	3	0	0	0	0		0.1	22,660	N/A
	Independent	43	0	0	0	0		0.1	18,180	0.0
	Unity	2	0	0	2	- 2		0.0	17,593	- 0.4
	Independent Socialist	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	17,300	N/A
	Labour (NI)	5	0	0	0	0		0.0	17,284	N/A
	Republican Clubs	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	15,152	N/A
	Democratic Labour	1	1	1	0	+ 1		0.0	14,780	N/A
	Independent Conservative	18	0	0	0	0		0.0	11,451	- 0.1
	Independent Republican	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,662	N/A
	People Movement	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,576	N/A
	Workers' Revolutionary	9	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,191	N/A
	Social Democracy	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,646	N/A
	Independent Democratic	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,976	N/A
	Marxist-Leninist (England)	6	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,419	N/A
	National Independence	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,373	N/A
	National Democratic	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,161	- 0.1
	Ind. Labour Party	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	991	0.0
	Mebyon Kernow	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	850	0.0
	International Marxist	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	716	N/A
	British Movement	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	711	0.0
	Independent Social Democrat	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	661	N/A
	Wessex Regionalist	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	521	N/A
	Independent Democrat	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	386	N/A
	More Prosperous Britain	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	234	N/A
	National Independent	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	229	N/A
	John Hampden New Freedom	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	203	N/A

Total votes: 31,321,982. All parties are shown. The seats won by the Ulster Unionists are compared with those won by Unionist MPs in the 1970 election. The Protestant Unionist Party became the core of the Democratic Unionist Party and their candidates are compared with the result of the Protestant Unionist in 1970. The sole Republican Labour Party MP elected in 1970 subsequently left that party to co-found the Social Democrat and Labour Party in 1970 and the remains of the party disintegrated by 1974.

Votes summary

Popular vote

Conservative			37.9%
Labour			37.18%
Liberal			19.35%
Scottish National			2.02%
Ulster Unionist			0.74%
Plaid Cymru			0.55%
Social Democratic and Labour			0.51%
Independent			0.4%
Others			1.35%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Conservative			46.77%
Labour			47.4%
Liberal			2.2%
Scottish National			1.1%
Ulster Unionist			1.1%
Plaid Cymru			0.31%
Social Democratic and Labour			0.16%
Vanguard			0.47%
Democratic Unionist			0.16%
Independent Labour			0.16%
Democratic Labour			0.16%

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Manifestos

Firm action for a fair Britain - Feb 1974 Conservative manifesto.
Let us work together - Labour's way out of the crisis - Feb 1974 Labour Party manifesto.
Change the face of Britain - Liberal Party manifesto.

v • d • e United Kingdom general elections

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