1970 United Kingdom general election in England

1970 United Kingdom general election in England

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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   Lib Leader Edward Heath Harold Wilson Jeremy Thorpe Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 28 July 1965 14 February 1963 18 January 1967 Leader's seat Bexley Huyton North Devon Last election 219 seats, 42.7% 285 seats, 48.0% 6 seats, 21.3% Seats won 292 216 2 Seat change 73 69 4 Popular vote 11,282,524 10,131,555 1,853,616 Percentage 48.3% 43.5% 7.9% Swing 5.6 pp 4.6 pp 1.1 pp

The 1970 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 18 June 1970 to elect 630 members of the House of Commons, of which 511 constituencies were in England.

In England, the Conservative Party led by Edward Heath scored a decisive victory by winning 292 seats over the incumbent Labour Party led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson which was restricted to 216 seats. Overall, the Conservative Party won 330 seats in the House of Commons while Labour won 288 seats.

This was the first general election to be held after the passage of the Representation of the People Act, thereby enabling citizens gain the eligibility to vote from the age of 18 (previously, it was 21).

Result Table

Party	Seats won	Net change in seats	Total votes	Voteshare	Change in voteshare
Conservative	292	73	11,282,524	48.3%	5.6%
Labour	216	69	10,131,555	43.4%	4.6%
Liberal	2	4	1,853,616	7.9%	1.1%

Parliament seats Conservative   57.14% Labour   42.27% Liberal   0.39%

References

1. Pilling, Sam; Cracknell, Richard (18 August 2021). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2021: A Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library.
2. "Heath: The victory few predicted", BBC News,
3. "1970: Heath's surprise victory", BBC News
4. Richard Rose (1970). "Voting Trends Surveyed". The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1970. London: Times Newspapers Ltd. p. 31.