February 1974 United Kingdom general election in England

February 1974 United Kingdom general election in England

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All 516 English seats in the House of Commons 259 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 Sidcup Huyton North Devon Last election 292 seats, 48.3% 216 seats, 43.4% 2 seats, 7.9 pp Seats won 268 237 9 Seat change 24 21 7 Popular vote 10,509,392 9,842,857 5,575,031 Percentage 40.2% 37.7% 21.3% Swing 8.1 pp 5.7 pp 13.4%

The February 1974 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 28 February 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons, of which 523 constituencies were in England.

While in the House of Commons, there emerged a hung parliament with the Labour Party winning 301 seats to the 297 won by the Conservative Party, in England, the Conservatives won 268 seats to Labour's 237. ^[1]

The Labour Party led by former prime minister Harold Wilson formed a minority government on 4 March 1974 after the incumbent Conservative government led by Prime Minister Edward Heath failed to form a coalition government with the Liberal Party led by Jeremy Thorpe .

As no party commanded a majority, a second general election was held in October in which the Labour Party gained a wafer-thin majority in the House of Commons. However, even in that election, Labour failed to win a majority of seats in England- it won just two seats more than the defeated Conservatives.

Result Table

Party	Seats won	Net change in seats	Total votes	Voteshare	Change in voteshare
Conservative	268	24	10,509,392	40.2%	8.1%
Labour	237	21	9,842,857	37.7%	5.7%
Liberal	9	7	5,575,031	21.3%	13.4%

Parliament seats Conservative   51.93% Labour   45.93% Liberal   1.74%

See also

• February 1974 United Kingdom general election

References

1. Espley, Richard (2021). University Special Collections (UK): Senate House Library. Pelham House, Pelhams Court, London Road, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 2AG, United Kingdom: Adam Matthew Digital.

Further references

1. Pilling, Sam; Cracknell, Richard (18 August 2021). "UK Election Statistics: 1918-2021: A Century of Elections" (PDF). House of Commons Library.
2. 28 February 1974", BBC Politics 97
3. Clark, George (1974). "The 'Inevitable' Election". The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1974. London: Times Newspapers Limited. p. 28
4. Butler, David; Kavanagh, Dennis (1974), The British General Election of February 1974