1959 United Kingdom general election in England

1959 United Kingdom general election

←  1955 8 October 1959 1964  →
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All 511 English seats in the House of Commons 256 seats needed for English majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Macmillan Hugh Gaitskell Jo Grimond Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 10 January 1957 14 December 1955 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Bromley Leeds South Orkney and Shetland Last election 293 seats, 50.4% 216 seats, 46.8% 3 seats, 2.7% Seats won 315 193 3 Seat change 22 23 Percentage 50.0% 43.6% 6.3% Swing 0.4% 3.2% 3.6%

The 1959 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 8 October 1959. As in the nation, in England, the Conservative Party registered a landslide victory over the Labour Party and its third consecutive victory overall.

The victory of the Conservative Party in England was even more remarkable than in the nation as it won over 120 seats than Labour with just over 50% of the voteshare. It was the only election between 1945 and 1979 in which a party won over 300 seats in England.

It was also the best performance of the Conservative Party in England since 1935 and conversely the worst for the Labour Party in England since 1935. ^{[1] [2]} Also, these elections marked the last time when the Conservative Party won over 50 per cent vote in England.

Main article: 1959 United Kingdom general election

Result Table

Party	Seats won	Net change in seats	Total votes (in millions)	Voteshare	Change in voteshare
Conservative	315	22	11.56	50.0%	0.4%
Labour	193	23	10.09	43.6%	3.2%
Liberal	3		1.45	6.3%	3.6%

Parliament seats Conservative   61.64% Labour   37.76% Liberal   0.58%

References

1. Harmer, Emily (2021-10-06), "The Candidates: Making the House (of Commons) Their Home?" , Women, media and elections, Policy Press, pp. 21–57, doi:10.1332/policypress/9781529204940.003.0002, ISBN   978-1-5292-0494-0 , retrieved 2024-09-28
2. Craig, Frederick Walter Scott (1989). British electoral facts 1832-1987 (Fifth ed.). Dartmouth (N.-E): Parliamentary research services. ISBN   978-0-900178-30-6.

1. "8 October 1959", BBC Politics 97.
2. "1959: Macmillan wins Tory hat trick", BBC News.
3. Pilling, Sam; Cracknell, Richard (18 August 2021). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2021: A Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library. pp. 20–21.
4. Sanders, David. "Pre-election polling in Britain, 1950–1997." Electoral Studies 22.1 (2003): 1-20.
5. Ridge-Newman, Anthony, and Anthony Ridge-Newman. "1959 General Election, Tories and TV 1958–63." The Tories and Television, 1951-1964: Broadcasting an Elite (2017): 111–129.