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1966 United Kingdom general election

← 1964 31 March 1966 1970 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	75.8%, 1.3%
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 & Shetland Last election 317 seats, 44.1% 304 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 11.2% Seats won 364[a] 253 12 Seat change 47 51 3 Popular vote 13,096,951 11,418,433 2,327,533 Percentage 48.0% 41.9% 8.5% Swing 3.9% 1.5% 2.7%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Appointed Prime Minister Harold Wilson Labour

The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was won convincingly by the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Wilson's decision to call a snap election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 96 seats.^[a]

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. Labour ran its campaign with the slogan "You know Labour government works".

Shortly after the local elections, Sir Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath as leader of the Conservative Party.

The Conservatives had not really had 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 Liberals, money was an issue: two elections in the space of just two years had left the party in a tight financial position.^[1]

The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, and was presented by Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan, Sir Robin Day, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. The election was replayed on the BBC Parliament channel on the 40th anniversary of the event^[2] and again in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.^[3]

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:

National opinion polls summary

• 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

Votes summary

Seats summary

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".

• 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

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1966

Notes

References

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
  

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979

Manifestos

• 
  Action Not Words: The New Conservative Programme, 1966 Conservative Party manifesto


• 
  Time for Decision, 1966 Labour Party manifesto


• 
  For All the People: the Liberal Plan of 1966, 1966 Liberal Party manifesto