1966 United Kingdom general election

1966 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons ; 316 seats needed for a majority
	Opinion polls
Turnout	75.8%, 1.3%
	Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
	Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election; Harold Wilson ; Labour	Prime Minister after election; Harold Wilson ; Labour

Last updated March 18, 2024

The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Wilson decided to call a snap election since his government, elected a mere 17 months previously, in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last British general election in which the voting age was 21; Wilson's government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970.

Background

Prior to the 1966 general election, Labour had performed poorly in local elections in 1965, and lost a by-election, cutting their majority to just two. Shortly after the local elections, the leader of the Conservative Party Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath in the 1965 leadership election.

Despite setbacks and a small majority, Labour believed it had an advantage due to the disorientation from the change of leadership at the Conservative Party, the improvement of economic conditions under its brief government, and a victory at the 1966 Kingston upon Hull North by-election.^[1] The Conservatives had not had much time to prepare their campaign, although it was more professional than previously. There had been little time for Heath to become well known among the British public, having led the party for just eight months before the election. For the Liberal Party, money was an issue: two elections in the space of just two years had left the party in a tight financial position and had to field fewer candidates.^[2] Labour ran its campaign with the slogan "You know Labour government works" and avoided commenting on controversial issues such as European integration, trade unions, and nationalisation.^[1]

The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, was presented by Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan, Robin Day, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. The election was replayed on the BBC Parliament channel on the 40th anniversary of the event,^[3] and again in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.^[4]

Although the BBC's telecast was in black and white, a couple of colour television cameras were placed in the BBC election studio at Television Centre to allow CBS's Charles Collingwood and NBC's David Brinkley to file live reports from that studio by satellite and in colour for their respective networks' evening news programmes (which were transmitted at 11:30 pm British time, 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time).

Timeline

The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, announced on 28 February that Parliament would be dissolved on 10 March, for an election to be held on 31 March. The key dates were as follows:

Thursday 10 March	Dissolution of the 43rd Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 21 March	Last day to file nomination papers; 1,707 candidates enter to contest 630 seats
Wednesday 30 March	Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 31 March	Polling day
Friday 1 April	The Labour Party wins with an improved majority of 98
Monday 18 April	44th Parliament assembles
Thursday 21 April	State Opening of Parliament

Opinion polling

Research Services: 3% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 101)
National opinion polls: 3.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 115)
Gallup: 4.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 150)
Express (known as Harris): 7.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of in excess of 255)

Results

The Labour Party performed very well in the election and expanded its previously slim majority against the Conservative opposition to 97 seats, accomplishing a net gain of 48 seats. It won 364 seats from 48 per cent of the vote, against 253 seats from 41.4 per cent for the Conservatives and 12 seats from 8 per cent for the Liberals. A major reason for the Labour victory was the revitalization of the party's working-class support in the 1960s. It captured its highest support yet from manual laborers at 69 per cent, as well as its best performance for non-manual laborers since 1945. The government also appealed to both the right wing of the party with its cabinet dominated by junior ministers of the Attlee ministry as well as the left wing by the presence of officials such as Prime Minister Wilson, Richard Crossman, Barbara Castle, and Frank Cousins.^[1] Although the party would go on to win more seats under Tony Blair in 1997 and 2001, Labour have never since matched the 48% of the popular vote they won in 1966.

UK General Election 1966
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Harold Wilson	622	364^{[note 1]}	48	1	+47	57.8	48.0	13,096,629	+3.9
	Conservative	Edward Heath	629	253	0	51	−51	40.2	41.9	11,418,455	−1.5
	Liberal	Jo Grimond	311	12	5	2	+3	1.9	8.5	2,327,457	−2.7
	SNP	Arthur Donaldson	23	0	0	0	0		0.5	128,474	+0.3
	Independent Republican	N/A	5	0	0	0	0		0.2	62,782	N/A
	Communist	John Gollan	57	0	0	0	0		0.2	62,092	0.0
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	20	0	0	0	0		0.2	61,071	−0.1
	Independent	N/A	15	0	0	0	0		0.1	35,039	N/A
	Republican Labour	Gerry Fitt	1	1	1	0	+1	0.2	0.1	26,292	0.0
	Nationalist	Eddie McAteer	1	0	0	0	0		0.1	22,167	N/A
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,689	N/A
	British National	John Bean	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,182	0.0
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,089	N/A
	Union Movement	Oswald Mosley	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,075	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,031	N/A
	Fellowship	Ronald Mallone	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	906	0.0
	National Democratic	David Brown	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	769	N/A
	National Teenage	Screaming Lord Sutch	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	585	N/A
	Ind. Labour Party	Emrys Thomas	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	441	0.0
	Socialist (GB)	N/A	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	333	0.0
	Radical Alliance	Pat Arrowsmith	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	163	N/A
	Patriotic Party	Richard Hilton	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	126	0.0

Government's new majority	98
Total votes cast	27,264,747
Turnout	75.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote

Labour			48.04%
Conservative			41.88%
Liberal			8.54%
Others			1.55%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Labour			57.78%
Conservative			40.16%
Liberal			1.90%
Others			0.16%

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Labour

Patrick Duffy (Colne Valley)

Liberal

Televised declarations

These declarations were covered live by the BBC where the returning officer was heard to say "duly elected".

From BBC Parliament Replay
Constituency	Winning party 1964		Constituency result 1966 by party						Winning party 1966
Constituency	Winning party 1964		Con	Lab	Lib	PC	SNP	Others	Winning party 1966
Cheltenham		Conservative	22,683	19,768						Conservative hold
Wolverhampton North East		Labour	12,965	21,067						Labour hold
Wolverhampton South West		Conservative	21,466	14,881						Conservative hold
Salford West		Labour	13,257	19,237						Labour hold
Salford East		Labour	9,000	18,409						Labour hold
Exeter		Conservative	18,613	22,189	4,869					Labour gain
Devon North		Liberal	15,631	6,127	16,797					Liberal hold
Smethwick		Conservative	14,550	18,440				508		Labour gain
Nelson and Colne		Labour	13,829	18,406				5,117		Labour hold
Leyton		Labour	18,157	26,803	3,851			441		Labour recovery
Huyton		Labour	20,182	41,132				585		Labour hold
Billericay		Conservative	38,371	40,013	7,587					Labour gain
Preston South		Labour	17,931	20,720						Labour hold
Bexley		Conservative	26,377	24,044	4,405					Conservative hold
Brentford and Chiswick		Conservative	14,031	14,638	2,063					Labour gain
Aberdeenshire West		Conservative	13,956	6,008	15,151					Liberal gain
Taunton		Conservative	22,359	19,216	5,460					Conservative hold
Monmouth		Conservative	25,654	28,619						Labour gain

The 5,117 votes polled for the "Others" in Nelson and Colne were all polled for Patrick Downey, uncle of Lesley Ann Downey, who had been murdered by the Moors Murderers. Downey advocated the return of hanging.

Notes

1 2 The seat and vote count figures for Labour given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons
↑ The Conservative figure includes Ulster Unionists and National Liberals.

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References

1 2 3 Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK. p. 157. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.
↑ "1966: Wilson gains mandate", BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 26 May 2018
↑ "Election replay 1966", BBC News, 29 March 2006, retrieved 26 May 2018
↑ 1966 General Election, BBC Parliament, retrieved 26 May 2018

External links

United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 23 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

Action Not Words: The New Conservative Programme, 1966 Conservative Party manifesto
Time for Decision, 1966 Labour Party manifesto
For All the People: the Liberal Plan of 1966, 1966 Liberal Party manifesto

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[speaker-1] 1 2 The seat and vote count figures for Labour given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

[Conservatives-6] The Conservative figure includes Ulster Unionists and National Liberals.

[:0-2] 1 2 3 Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK. p. 157. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.

[SusVic-3] "1966: Wilson gains mandate", BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 26 May 2018

[4] "Election replay 1966", BBC News, 29 March 2006, retrieved 26 May 2018

[5] 1966 General Election, BBC Parliament, retrieved 26 May 2018

[note 1]

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[note 2]

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v t e Harold Wilson
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v t e Edward Heath
Premiership	1970–1974
General elections	1966 1970 February 1974 October 1974
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