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1964 United Kingdom general election

← 1959 15 October 1964 1966 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	77.1%, 1.7%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Wilson Sir Alec Douglas-Home Jo Grimond Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 14 February 1963 18 October 1963 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Huyton Kinross & Western Perthshire Orkney & Shetland Last election 258 seats, 43.8% 365 seats, 49.4% 6 seats, 5.9% Seats won 317 304 9 Seat change 59 61 3 Popular vote 12,205,808 12,002,642 3,099,283 Percentage 44.1% 43.4% 11.2% Swing 0.2% 6.0% 5.3%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election Sir Alec Douglas-Home Conservative Appointed Prime Minister Harold Wilson Labour

The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on 15 October 1964, five years after the previous election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party, first led by Winston Churchill, had entered power. It resulted in the Conservatives, now led by its fourth leader, Sir Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing the election to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson, with Labour having an overall majority of four seats. It resulted in Labour ending its thirteen years in opposition and led to Wilson to become, at the time, the youngest Prime Minister in more than 150 years (a distinction later taken by John Major in 1990, Tony Blair in 1997 and David Cameron in 2010).

Background

Both major parties had changed leadership in 1963; after the sudden death of Hugh Gaitskell early in the year, Labour chose Harold Wilson (who was then thought of as being on the party's centre-left), while Sir Alec Douglas-Home (then the Earl of Home) had taken over as Conservative leader and Prime Minister in the autumn after Harold Macmillan announced his resignation. Douglas-Home shortly afterwards disclaimed his title under the Peerage Act 1963 in order to lead the party from the Commons.

Macmillan had led the Conservative government since January 1957. Despite initial popularity and a resounding election victory in 1959, he had become increasingly unpopular in the early-1960s, and while it was for a while thought likely that the Conservatives would win the scheduled 1964 general election, albeit with a reduced majority, the emergence of the Profumo affair in March 1963 and Macmillan's handling of the matter all but destroyed the credibility of his government. While he survived a vote of no confidence in June 1963, polling indicated that the Conservatives would lose the next election heavily if Macmillan remained in power, which, along with health issues, caused Macmillan to announce his resignation in the autumn of 1963.

Douglas-Home faced a difficult task in rebuilding the party's popularity with just a year elapsing between taking office and having to face a general election. Wilson had begun to try to tie the Labour Party to the growing confidence of Britain in the 1960s, asserting that the "white heat of revolution" would sweep away "restrictive practices ... on both sides of industry". The Liberal Party enjoyed a resurgence after a virtual wipeout in the 1950s, and doubled its share of the vote, primarily at the expense of the Conservatives. Although Labour did not increase its vote share significantly, the fall in support for the Conservatives led to Wilson securing an overall majority of four seats.^[1] This proved to be unworkable, and Wilson called a snap election in 1966.

Campaign

The pre-election campaign was prolonged, as Douglas-Home delayed calling a general election to give himself as much time as possible to improve the prospects of his party. The election campaign formally began on 15 September 1964 when Douglas-Home saw the Queen and asked for a dissolution of Parliament. The campaign was dominated by some of the more voluble characters of the political scene at the time. While George Brown, deputy leader of the Labour Party, toured the country making energetic speeches (and the occasional gaffe), Quintin Hogg was a leading spokesman for the Conservatives. The image of Hogg lashing out at a Wilson poster with his walking stick was one of the most striking of the campaign. Many party speakers, especially at televised rallies, had to deal with hecklers; in particular Douglas-Home was treated very roughly at a meeting in Birmingham.

The election night was broadcast live by the BBC, and was presented for the fifth and final time by Richard Dimbleby, with Robin Day, Ian Trethowan, Cliff Michelmore and David Butler.^[2]

Opinion poll summary

• NOP: Lab swing 3.5% (Lab majority of 12)


• 
  Gallup: Lab swing 4% (Lab majority of 23)


• Research Services: Lab swing 2.75% (Con majority of 30)


• 
  Daily Express: Lab swing of 1.75% (Con majority of 60)^[a]

Results

The election resulted in a very slim majority of four seats for the Labour Party, so they were in government for the first time since 1951. Labour achieved a swing of just over 3%, although its vote rose by only 0.2%. The main shift was the swing from the Conservatives to the Liberals of 5.7%. The Liberals won nearly twice as many votes as in 1959, partly because they had 150 more candidates. Wilson became Prime Minister, replacing Douglas-Home. The four-seat majority was not sustainable for a full Parliament, and Wilson called another general election in 1966. In particular the small majority meant the government could not implement its policy of nationalising the steel industry, due to the opposition of two of its backbenchers, Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly.

This was the only election in Britain's recent history when all seats were won by the three main parties: no minor parties, independents or splinter groups won any seats. It was also the last election in which one party, namely the Conservative Party, contested every single seat. The Conservatives had previously held off on contesting certain Liberal-held seats as per local-level agreements to avoid vote-splitting, but ended that policy at this election. The resultant splitting of votes actually helped grant Labour a majority, by throwing two formerly Liberal-held seats in northern England to Labour; however, the outcome of the election would not have been meaningfully altered had the Liberals retained the seats, as Labour would still have had as many seats as the other two parties combined, and Liberal leader Jo Grimond was not inclined to prop up a minority Conservative government.

Votes summary

Seats summary

Regional results

Great Britain

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	Labour		12,103,049	44.8	618	317
	Conservative & Unionist		11,600,745	42.9	618	292
		Conservative	10,292,974	38.1	599	286
		Unionist	981,641	3.6	65	24
		National Liberal	326,130	1.2	19	6
	Liberal		3,081,929	11.4	361	9
	Plaid Cymru		69,507	0.3	23	0	0.0
	SNP		64,044	0.2	15	0	0.0
	Communist		46,442	0.2	36	0	0.0
	Other parties and independents		53,116	0.2	47	0	0.0
Total (turnout: 77.2%)			27,018,832	100.0	1,718	618	100.0
Did not vote			7,984,670
Registered voters			35,003,502
British population			52,608,000
Source: Rallings & Thrasher

England

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	Conservative & Unionist		10,106,028	44.1	511	262
		Conservative	9,894,014	43.1	500	256
		National Liberal	212,014	0.9	11	6
	Labour		9,982,360	43.5	511	246
	Liberal		2,775,752	12.1	323	3
	Communist		24,824	0.1	22	0	0.0
	Other parties and independents		48,287	0.2	42	0	0.0
Total (turnout: 77.0%)			22,937,251	100.0	1,409	511	100.0
Did not vote			6,867,376
Registered voters			29,804,627
English population			44,610,500
Source: Rallings & Thrasher

Scotland

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	Labour		1,283,667	48.7	71	43	60.6	+5
	Conservative & Unionist		1,069,695	40.6	71	24	33.8	−7
		Unionist	981,641	37.3	65	24	33.8	−1
		National Liberal	88,054	3.3	6	0	0.0	−6
	Liberal		200,063	7.6	26	4	5.6	+3
	SNP		64,044	2.4	15	0	0.0
	Communist		12,241	0.5	9	0	0.0
	Other parties and independents		4,829	0.2	5	0	0.0
Total (turnout: 77.6%)			2,634,539	100.0	197	71	100.0
Did not vote			759,352
Registered voters			3,393,891
Scottish population			5,209,000
Source: Rallings & Thrasher

Wales

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	Labour		837,022	57.8	36	28	77.8
	Conservative & Unionist		425,022	29.4	36	6	16.7
		Conservative	398,960	27.6	34	6	16.7
		National Liberal	26,062	1.8	2	0	0.0
	Liberal		106,114	7.3	12	2	5.6
	Plaid Cymru		69,507	4.8	23	0	0.0
	Communist		9,377	0.6	5	0	0.0
Total (turnout: 80.1%)			1,447,042	100.0	112	36	100.0
Did not vote			358,453
Registered voters			1,805,495
Voting age population			1,805,925
Welsh population			2,676,400
Source: Rallings & Thrasher

Northern Ireland

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats	+/–
	Conservative & Unionist		401,897	63.0	12	12	100.0
		Ulster Unionist Party
	Labour		102,759	16.1	10	0	0.0
	Independent Republican		101,628	15.9	12	0	0.0
	Ulster Liberal		17,354	2.7	4	0	0.0
	Republican Labour		14,678	2.3	1	0	0.0
Total (turnout: 71.7%)			638,316	100.0		12	100.0
Did not vote			252,236
Registered voters			890,552
Voting age population			891,043
Northern Irish population			1,458,000
Source: Rallings & Thrasher

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the 1959 election.
  
  • In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
  
  
  • In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1964. Such circumstances are marked with a †.
  
  

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

Televised results programmes

Both BBC and ITV provided televised coverage of the results and provided commentary. The BBC coverage is infrequently rebroadcast on the BBC Parliament channel—it was last broadcast on 12 November 2014.^[3][4]

Televised declarations

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

• Orpington was won by the Liberals in a by-election in 1962 and held in the general election. When this happens, it is described as a "win" as opposed to a "gain" or "hold".

See also

• MPs elected in the UK general election, 1964


• Smethwick in the 1964 general election

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979


• Summary of the election

Manifestos

• 
  Prosperity With a Purpose, 1964 Conservative Party manifesto


• 
  The New Britain, 1964 Labour Party manifesto


• 
  Think for Yourself, 1964 Liberal Party manifesto