February 1974 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

February 1974 United Kingdom general election

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All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout	78.86%, 4.95%
First party Second party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Party Labour Conservative Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 Last election 44 seats, 44.5% 23 seats, 38.0% Seats won 40 21 Seat change 4 2 Popular vote 1,057,601 950,668 Percentage 36.6% 32.9% Swing 7.9% 5.1%   Third party Fourth party   SNP Liberal Leader William Wolfe Jeremy Thorpe Party SNP Liberal Leader since 1 June 1969 18 January 1967 Last election 1 seat, 11.4% 3 seats, 5.5% Seats won 7 3 Seat change 6 Popular vote 633,180 229,162 Percentage 21.9% 7.9% Swing 10.5% 2.4%
Results of the Feb. 1974 election in Scotland

Main article: February 1974 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 28 February 1974 and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested. ^[1] Labour won almost twice as many Scottish seats as the Conservatives, although both main parties suffered a drop in seats and vote share compared to the previous election. The Scottish National Party achieved significant success at the election by increasing its share of the popular vote in Scotland from 11% to 22%, and its number of MPs from one to seven. They had campaigned widely on the political slogan "It's Scotland's oil" following the discovery of North Sea oil off the coast of Scotland. ^{[2] [3]} The Liberals also gained vote share, and retained their existing three seats.

When combined with results from across the UK, the election resulted in a hung parliament, the first since 1929. Labour, led by Leader of the Opposition and former Prime Minister Harold Wilson, ended up as the largest party, but seventeen short of an overall majority. The Conservatives, led by incumbent Prime Minister Edward Heath, lost 28 seats (though they polled a higher share of the vote than Labour). Heath sought a coalition with the Liberals, but the two parties failed to come to an agreement and so Wilson became prime minister for a second time, his first with a minority government. Wilson called another early election in September, which was held in October and resulted in a slim Labour majority.

MPs

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (February 1974–October 1974)

Results

Party		Seats	Seats change	Votes	%	% change
	Labour	40	4	1,057,601	36.6	7.9
	Conservative	21	2	950,668	32.9	5.1
	SNP	7	6	633,180	21.9	10.5
	Liberal	3		229,162	7.9	2.4
	Other	0		16,464	0.6	0.1
Turnout:				2,887,075	78.86

Votes summary

Popular vote Labour   36.63% Conservative   32.93% SNP   21.93% Liberal   7.94% Other   0.57%

Parliament seats Labour   56.34% Conservative   29.58% SNP   9.86% Liberal   4.23%

References

1. "Commons results report" (PDF).
2. Shuster, Alvin (20 February 1974). "Scottish Nationalism Comes Out of Slump in Election Issue of Who Owns Offshore". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 15 October 2022.
3. Brocklehurst, Steven (16 April 2013). "Who has a right to claim North Sea oil?". BBC News. Retrieved 15 October 2022.