United Kingdom general election, October 1974

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1970 election • MPs

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1979 election • MPs

1983 election • MPs

Harold Wilson

Edward Heath

The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974. It was the second of two United Kingdom general elections held that year. Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson, having taken power in a hung parliament after the February election, returned to the polls and won a tiny majority of 3. In both elections the Conservative Party's hopes of forming a government had been weakened by the decision of Ulster Unionist Party MPs to withdraw from their long-standing acceptance of the Conservative whip in parliament, due to their opposition to the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement.

It was at this election that the Scottish National Party secured their best ever representation inside the House of Commons: 11 elected MPs as well as their largest total number of votes in a UK general election.

[edit] Results

UK General Election October 1974
Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net Gain/Loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/-
	Labour	319	20	2	+ 18		39.2	11,457,079	+ 2.0
	Conservative	277	2	22	- 20		35.8	10,462,565	- 2.1
	Liberal	13	1	2	- 1		18.3	5,346,704	- 1.0
	Scottish National Party	11	4	0	+ 4		2.9	839,617	+ 0.9
	Ulster Unionist	6	0	1	- 1		0.9	256,065	+ 0.1
	Plaid Cymru	3	1	0	+ 1		0.6	166,321	+ 0.1
	Social Democratic and Labour	1	0	0	0		0.6	154,193	+ 0.1
	National Front	0	0	0	0		0.4	113,843	+ 0.2
	Vanguard Progressive Unionist	3	0	0	0		0.3	92,262	+ 0.1
	Democratic Unionist	1	0	0	0		0.3	59,451	+ 0.1
	Alliance (NI)	0	0	0	0		0.2	44,644	+ 0.1
	Independent Labour	0	0	0	0		0.2	33,317	+ 0.1
	Independent Republican	1	1	0	+ 1		0.2	32,795	+ 0.2
	Republican Clubs	0	0	0	0		0.1	21,633	+ 0.1
	Unionist Party NI	0	0	0	0		0.1	20,454	N/A
	Communist	0	0	0	0		0.1	17,426	0.0
	Democratic Labour	0	0	1	- 1		0.1	13,714	+ 0.1
	Labour (NI)	0	0	0	0		0.0	11,539	0.0
	Independent	0	0	0	0		0.0	8,812	- 0.1
	Independent Ulster Unionist	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,982	N/A
	United Democratic	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,810	N/A
	Independent Conservative	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,559	0.0
	More Prosperous Britain	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,301	0.0
	Workers' Revolutionary	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,404	0.0
	Independent Liberal	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,277	- 0.2
	Volunteer Political	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,690	N/A
	Northern Ireland Civil Rights	0	0	0	0		0.0	2,381	N/A
	People Movement	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,996	0.0
	Communist (England, M-L)	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,320	0.0
	English National	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,115	N/A
	United English National	0	0	0	0		0.0	793	N/A
	Communist (Ireland, M-L)	0	0	0	0		0.0	540	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	0	0	0	0		0.0	384	N/A
	Socialist Party (GB)	0	0	0	0		0.0	118	N/A