1966 United Kingdom general election

31 March 1966

All 630 seats in the House of Commons
316 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout75.8%, Decrease1.3%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 5 November 1956
Leader's seat Huyton Bexley Orkney and Shetland
Last election 317 seats, 44.1% 304 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 11.2%
Seats won 364[note 1] 253 12
Seat change Increase47 Decrease51 Increase3
Popular vote 13,096,951 11,418,433 2,327,533
Percentage 48.0% 41.9% 8.5%
Swing Increase3.9% Decrease1.5% Decrease2.7%

Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results

Composition of the House of Commons after the election

Prime Minister before election

Harold Wilson
Labour

Prime Minister after election

Harold Wilson
Labour

The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Wilson decided to call a snap election since his government, elected a mere 17 months previously, in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last British general election in which the voting age was 21; Wilson's government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970.

Background

Prior to the 1966 general election, Labour had performed poorly in local elections in 1965, and lost a by-election, cutting their majority to just two. Shortly after the local elections, the leader of the Conservative Party Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath in the 1965 leadership election.

Despite setbacks and a small majority, Labour believed it had an advantage due to the disorientation from the change of leadership at the Conservative Party, the improvement of economic conditions under its brief government, and a victory at the 1966 Kingston upon Hull North by-election.[1] The Conservatives had not had much time to prepare their campaign, although it was more professional than previously. There had been little time for Heath to become well known among the British public, having led the party for just eight months before the election. For the Liberal Party, money was an issue: two elections in the space of just two years had left the party in a tight financial position and had to field fewer candidates.[2] Labour ran its campaign with the slogan "You know Labour government works" and avoided commenting on controversial issues such as European integration, trade unions, and nationalization.[1]

The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, was presented by Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan, Robin Day, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. The election was replayed on the BBC Parliament channel on the 40th anniversary of the event,[3] and again in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.[4]

Although the BBC's telecast was in black and white, a couple of colour television cameras were placed in the BBC election studio at Television Centre to allow CBS's Charles Collingwood and NBC's David Brinkley to file live reports from that studio by satellite and in colour for their respective networks' evening news programmes (which were transmitted at 11:30 pm British time, 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time).

Timeline

The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, announced on 28 February that Parliament would be dissolved on 10 March, for an election to be held on 31 March. The key dates were as follows:

Thursday 10 MarchDissolution of the 43rd Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 21 MarchLast day to file nomination papers; 1,707 candidates enter to contest 630 seats
Wednesday 30 MarchCampaigning officially ends
Thursday 31 MarchPolling day
Friday 1 AprilThe Labour Party wins with an improved majority of 98
Monday 18 April44th Parliament assembles
Thursday 21 AprilState Opening of Parliament

Opinion polling

  • Research Services: 3% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 101)
  • National opinion polls: 3.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 115)
  • Gallup: 4.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 150)
  • Express (known as Harris): 7.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of in excess of 255)

Results

The Labour Party performed very well in the election and expanded its previously slim majority against the Conservative opposition to 97 seats, accomplishing a net gain of 48 seats. It won 364 seats from 48 per cent of the vote, against 253 seats from 41.4 per cent for the Conservatives and 12 seats from 8 per cent for the Liberals. A major reason for the Labour victory was the revitalization of the party's working-class support in the 1960s. It captured its highest support yet from manual laborers at 69 per cent, as well as its best performance for non-manual laborers since 1945. The government also appealed to both the right wing of the party with its cabinet dominated by junior ministers of the Attlee ministry as well as the left wing by the presence of officials such as Prime Minister Wilson, Richard Crossman, Barbara Castle, and Frank Cousins.[1] Although the party would go on to win more seats under Tony Blair in 1997 and 2001, Labour have never since matched the 48% of the popular vote they won in 1966.

UK General Election 1966
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
  Labour Harold Wilson 622 364[note 1] 48 1 +47 57.8 48.0 13,096,629 +3.9
  Conservative Edward Heath 629 253 0 51 51 40.2 41.9 11,418,455 1.5
  Liberal Jo Grimond 311 12 5 2 +3 1.9 8.5 2,327,457 2.7
  SNP Arthur Donaldson 23 0 0 0 0 0.5 128,474 +0.3
  Independent Republican N/A 5 0 0 0 0 0.2 62,782 N/A
  Communist John Gollan 57 0 0 0 0 0.2 62,092 0.0
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 20 0 0 0 0 0.2 61,071 0.1
  Independent N/A 15 0 0 0 0 0.1 35,039 N/A
  Republican Labour Gerry Fitt 1 1 1 0 +1 0.2 0.1 26,292 0.0
  Nationalist Eddie McAteer 1 0 0 0 0 0.1 22,167 N/A
  Independent Liberal N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,689 N/A
  British National John Bean 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,182 0.0
  Ind. Conservative N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,089 N/A
  Union Movement Oswald Mosley 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,075 N/A
  Independent Labour N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,031 N/A
  Fellowship Ronald Mallone 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 906 0.0
  National Democratic David Brown 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 769 N/A
  National Teenage Screaming Lord Sutch 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 585 N/A
  Ind. Labour Party Emrys Thomas 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 441 0.0
  Socialist (GB) N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 333 0.0
  Radical Alliance Pat Arrowsmith 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 163 N/A
  Patriotic Party Richard Hilton 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 126 0.0
All parties shown.[note 2]
Government's new majority 98
Total votes cast 27,264,747
Turnout 75.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
48.04%
Conservative
41.88%
Liberal
8.54%
Others
1.55%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
57.78%
Conservative
40.16%
Liberal
1.90%
Others
0.16%

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

Televised declarations

These declarations were covered live by the BBC where the returning officer was heard to say "duly elected".

From BBC Parliament Replay
Constituency Winning party 1964 Constituency result 1966 by party Winning party 1966
Con Lab Lib PC SNP Others
Cheltenham Conservative 22,683 19,768 Conservative hold
Wolverhampton North East Labour 12,965 21,067 Labour hold
Wolverhampton South West Conservative 21,466 14,881 Conservative hold
Salford West Labour 13,257 19,237 Labour hold
Salford East Labour 9,000 18,409 Labour hold
Exeter Conservative 18,613 22,189 4,869 Labour gain
Devon North Liberal 15,631 6,127 16,797 Liberal hold
Smethwick Conservative 14,550 18,440 508 Labour gain
Nelson and Colne Labour 13,829 18,406 5,117 Labour hold
Leyton Labour 18,157 26,803 3,851 441 Labour recovery
Huyton Labour 20,182 41,132 585 Labour hold
Billericay Conservative 38,371 40,013 7,587 Labour gain
Preston South Labour 17,931 20,720 Labour hold
Bexley Conservative 26,377 24,044 4,405 Conservative hold
Brentford and Chiswick Conservative 14,031 14,638 2,063 Labour gain
Aberdeenshire West Conservative 13,956 6,008 15,151 Liberal gain
Taunton Conservative 22,359 19,216 5,460 Conservative hold
Monmouth Conservative 25,654 28,619 Labour gain
  • The 5,117 votes polled for the "Others" in Nelson and Colne were all polled for Patrick Downey, uncle of Lesley Ann Downey, who had been murdered by the Moors Murderers. Downey advocated the return of hanging.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 The seat and vote count figures for Labour given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons
  2. The Conservative figure includes Ulster Unionists and National Liberals.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK. p. 157. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.
  2. "1966: Wilson gains mandate", BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 26 May 2018
  3. "Election replay 1966", BBC News, 29 March 2006, retrieved 26 May 2018
  4. 1966 General Election, BBC Parliament, retrieved 26 May 2018

Further reading

  • Butler, David E.; et al. (1966), The British General Election of 1966, the standard scholarly study.
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302

Manifestos

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