1966 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1966 United Kingdom general election

←  1964 31 March 1966 1970  →
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All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond Party Labour Conservative Liberal Last election 43 seats, 48.7% 24 seats, 40.6% 4 seats, 7.6% Seats won 46 20 5 Seat change 3 4 1 Popular vote 1,273,916 960,675 172,447 Percentage 49.9% 37.6% 6.8% Swing 1.2% 3.0% 0.8%
Results of the 1966 election in Scotland   Conservative/Unionist   Labour   Liberal

Main article: 1966 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 31 March 1966, and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested. ^[1] The election took place only 17 months after the 1964 United Kingdom general election, with incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson deciding to call a snap election since his government had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. Combined with results from across the UK, the result was a landslide victory for Wilson's Labour Party.

The election was first in which the Scottish Conservatives stood for election as a integral part of the Conservative Party, with the former Unionist Party (which had been aligned with, but separate from, the Conservatives), having merged into the Tories in April 1965. ^{[2] [3]} Both Labour and Liberal parties gained seats from the newly merged Conservatives at the election.

MPs

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1966–1970)

Results

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	46	3	1,273,916	49.9	1.2
	Conservative	20	4	960,675	37.6	3.0
	Liberal	5	1	172,447	6.8	0.8
	SNP	0		128,474	5.0	2.6
	Communist	0		16,230	0.6	0.1
	Other	0		638	0.0	0.2
Turnout:				2,552,380

Votes summary

Popular vote Labour   49.91% Conservative   37.64% Liberal   6.76% SNP   5.03% Other   0.74%

Parliamentary seats Labour   64.79% Conservative   28.17% Liberal   7.04%

References

1. "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020.
2. Torrance, David (April 2018). "'Standing up for Scotland': The Scottish Unionist Party and 'nationalist unionism', 1912–68". Scottish Affairs. 27 (2): 180. doi:10.3366/scot.2018.0235 – via Edinburgh University Press.
3. Urwin, D.W. (1 June 1966). "Scottish Conservatism: A Party Organization in Transition" . Political Studies. 14 (2): 145–162. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1966.tb00399.x . Retrieved 18 August 2024.