1964 United Kingdom general election

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, 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.^{[citation needed]}

1955 election MPs

1959 election MPs

1964 election MPs

1966 election MPs

1970 election MPs

Background[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

• 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[edit]

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.

↓ 

317	304	9
Labour	Conservative	Lib

UK General Election 1964

All parties shown.^[b]

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Harold Wilson	628	317	65	6	+59	50.3	44.1	12,205,808
	Conservative	Alec Douglas-Home	630	304	5	66	−61	48.3	43.4	12,002,642
	Liberal	Jo Grimond	365	9	5	2	+3	1.4	11.2	3,099,283
	Independent Republican	N/A	12	0	0	0	0		0.4	101,628
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	23	0	0	0	0		0.3	69,507
	SNP	Arthur Donaldson	15	0	0	0	0		0.2	64,044
	Communist	John Gollan	36	0	0	0	0		0.2	46,442
	Independent	N/A	20	0	0	0	0		0.1	18,677
	Independent Liberal	N/A	4	0	0	0	0		0.1	16,064
	Republican Labour	Gerry Fitt	1	0	0	0	0		0.1	14,678
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	5	0	0	1	−1		0.0	6,459
	British National	John Bean	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,410
	Anti-Common Market League	John Paul & Michael Shay	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,083
	Ind. Nuclear Disarmament	Pat Arrowsmith	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,534
	Fellowship	Ronald Mallone	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,112
	Patriotic Party	Richard Hilton	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,108
	League of Empire Loyalists	Arthur K. Chesterton	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,046
	Communist Anti-Revisionist	Michael McCreery	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	899
	Christian Progressive	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	865
	Taxpayers' Coalition Party	John E. Dayton	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	709
	Agriculturalist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	534
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	458
	National Democratic	David Brown	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	349
	Socialist (GB)	N/A	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	322
	World Government	Gilbert Young	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	318
	British and Commonwealth	Miles Blair	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	310
	Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	John Hargrave	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	304
	Christian Socialist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	265

Government's new majority	4
Total votes cast	27,657,148
Turnout	77%

Votes summary[edit]

Popular vote Labour   44.1% Conservative and allies   43.4% Liberal   11.2% Independent   0.5% Others   0.7%

Seats summary[edit]

Parliamentary seats Labour   50.3% Conservative and allies   48.3% Liberal   1.4% Others   0%

Regional results[edit]

Great Britain[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

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[edit]

• 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 †.

From		To		No.	Seats
	Labour		Labour (HOLD)		Aberavon, Aberdare, Aberdeen North, Abertillery, Accrington, Anglesey, Ashton-under-Lyne, Ayrshire Central, Ayrshire South, Barking, Barrow-in-Furness, Bedwellty, Belper, Birkenhead, Bishop Auckland, Blackburn, Blaydon, Bolsover, Bootle, Bosworth, Bothwell, Brecon and Radnor, Brigg, Bristol Central, Bristol South, Bristol South East4, Burnley, Caernarfon, Caerphilly, Cardiff South East, Cardiff West, Carmarthen, Chester-le-Street, Chesterfield, Chorley, Coatbridge and Airdrie, Consett, Crewe, Dagenham, Dartford, Derby North, Derby South, Derbyshire North East, Dudley, Dunbartonshire East, Dunbartonshire West, Dundee East, Dundee West, Dunfermline Burghs, Durham, Durham North West, Easington, East Ham N, East Ham S, Ebbw Vale, Eccles, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh East, Edinburgh Leith, Erith and Crayford, Falmouth and Camborne, Farnworth, Faversham, Fife West, Flintshire East, Gateshead East, Gateshead West, Glasgow Bridgeton, Glasgow Central, Glasgow Craigton, Glasgow Gorbals, Glasgow Govan, Glasgow Maryhill, Glasgow Provan, Glasgow Scotstoun, Glasgow Shettleston, Glasgow Springburn, Gloucester, Gloucestershire West, Goole, Gower, Greenock, Grimsby, Hamilton, Houghton-le-Spring, Hull East, Hull West, Huyton, Ilkeston, Ince, Jarrow, Kilmarnock, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Lanark, Lanarkshire North, Leicester NE, Leicester NW, Leicester SW, Leigh, Leyton, Lincoln, Liverpool Edge Hill, Liverpool Exchange, Liverpool Scotland, Llanelli, Loughborough, Manchester Ardwick, Manchester Cheetham, Manchester Exchange, Manchester Gorton, Manchester Openshaw, Merionethshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Midlothian, Motherwell, Neath, Nelson and Colne, Newport (Monmouthshire), Newton, Ogmore, Oldbury and Halesowen, Oldham East, Oldham West, Paisley, Pembrokeshire, Pontypool, Pontypridd, Rhondda East, Rhondda West, Rochdale, Romford, Rossendale, Rowley Regis and Tipton, St Helens, Salford East, Salford West, Sedgefield, South Shields, Southampton Itchen, Stalybridge and Hyde, Stirling and Falkirk, Stirlingshire East and Clackmannan, Stirlingshire West, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland North, Swansea East, Thurrock, Walthamstow W, Warrington, West Ham North, West Ham South, West Lothian, Western Isles, Westhoughton, Whitehaven, Widnes, Wigan, Workington, Wrexham
			Liberal National
			Conservative		Eton and Slough
	Liberal		Labour		Bolton West
			Liberal (HOLD)		Cardiganshire, Devon North, Montgomeryshire, Orkney and Shetland
	Liberal National		Labour		Luton†, Renfrewshire West
			Liberal		Ross and Cromarty
			Liberal National (HOLD)		Bristol North East, Harwich, Holland with Boston, Huntingdonshire, St Ives
			Conservative		Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Bedfordshire South*, Dumfries†, Fife East†, Plymouth Devonport*
	Conservative		Labour		Bolton East, Buckingham, Bury and Radcliffe, Carlisle, Derbyshire South East, Dover, Epping, Glasgow Kelvingrove, Glasgow Pollok, Glasgow Woodside†, Gravesend, The Hartlepools, Heywood and Royton, Hitchin, Hull North, Liverpool Kirkdale, Liverpool Toxteth, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool West Derby, Manchester Blackley, Manchester Wythenshawe, Preston South, Rochester and Chatham, Rutherglen†, Stockport North, Stockport South, Sunderland South, Swansea West, Watford
			Liberal		Bodmin, Inverness, Orpington†
			Conservative (HOLD)		Aberdeen South, Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Abingdon, Aldershot, Altrincham and Sale, Argyll, Ashford, Aylesbury, Ayr, Ayrshire North and Bute, Banff, Barnet, Barry, Basingstoke, Bebington, Beckenham, Bedford, Bedfordshire Mid, Berwick and East Lothian, Bexley, Billericay, Blackpool North, Blackpool South, Bournemouth East & Christchurch, Bournemouth West, Bridlington, Bristol North West, Bristol West, Bromley, Bromsgrove, Buckinghamshire South, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Canterbury, Cardiff North, Cheadle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chester, Chigwell, Chislehurst, Cirencester and Tewkesbury, Clitheroe, Colchester, Conway, Cornwall North, Crosby, Darlington, Darwen, Denbigh, West Derbyshire, Dorset North, Dorset South3, Dorset West, Eastleigh, Edinburgh North, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh West, Essex SE, Exeter, Flintshire West, Folkestone and Hythe, Fylde North, Fylde South, Gainsborough, Galloway, Gillingham, Glasgow Cathcart, Glasgow Hillhead, Gloucestershire South, Gosport and Fareham, Grantham, Haltemprice, Harborough, Hemel Hempstead, Hereford, Hertford, Hertfordshire E, Hertfordshire SW, High Peak, Honiton, Horncastle, Hornchurch, Howden, Ilford North, Ilford South, Isle of Ely, Isle of Thanet, Isle of Wight, Kidderminster, Kinross and West Perthshire, Knutsford, Lancaster, Leicester South East, Leominster, Liverpool Garston, Liverpool Wavertree, Louth, Macclesfield, Maidstone, Maldon, Manchester Moss Side, Manchester Withington, Melton, Middleton and Prestwich, Monmouth, Moray and Nairn, Morecambe and Lonsdale, Nantwich, New Forest, Newbury, Northwich, Ormskirk, Plymouth Sutton, Penrith and the Border, Perth and East Perthshire, Petersfield, Poole, Portsmouth Langstone, Portsmouth South, Portsmouth West, Preston North, Reading, Renfrewshire East, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, Runcorn, Rutland and Stamford, Saffron Walden, St Albans, Sevenoaks, Southampton Test, Southend East, Southend West, Southport, Stretford, Stroud, Tavistock, Tiverton, Tonbridge, Torquay, Torrington, Totnes, Truro, Wallasey, Walthamstow East, Wanstead and Woodford, Westmorland, Winchester, Windsor, Wirral, Wokingham, Worcester, Worcestershire South, Wycombe
			Ind. Conservative
	Ind. Conservative		Liberal		Caithness and Sutherland
	UUP		UUP		North Antrim, South Antrim, Armagh, Belfast East, Belfast North, Belfast South, Belfast West, Down North, Down South, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Londonderry, Mid Ulster
	Conservative		Speaker		Cities of London and Westminster

Incumbents defeated[edit]

Conservative[edit]

Labour[edit]

Liberal[edit]

Televised results programmes[edit]

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[edit]

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

Constituency	Winning party 1959		Constituency result 1964 by party				Winning party 1964
			Con	Lab	Lib	Others
Cheltenham		Conservative	19,797	14,557	7,568			Conservative hold
Salford West		Labour	16,446	20,490				Labour hold
Billericay		Conservative	35,347	33,755	10,706			Conservative hold
Exeter		Conservative	18,035	16,673	8,815			Conservative hold
Battersea South		Conservative	10,615	12,263	3,294			Labour gain
Liverpool Exchange		Labour	7,239	16,985				Labour hold
Holborn and St Pancras South		Conservative	13,117	15,823		226		Labour gain
North Devon		Liberal	13,985	4,306	19,031			Liberal hold
Stockport South		Conservative	13,718	16,755	7,107			Labour gain
Barons Court		Conservative	14,800	15,966	2,821			Labour gain
Bolton West		Liberal	13,522	16,519	10,086			Labour gain
Smethwick		Labour	16,690	14,916		262		Conservative gain
Huyton		Labour	22,940	42,213		899		Labour hold
Orpington		Conservative	19,565	4,609	22,637			Liberal win
Torrington		Conservative	16,889	5,867	14,831			Conservative hold

• 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[edit]

• List of MPs elected in the 1964 United Kingdom general election
• Smethwick in the 1964 general election

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979
• Summary of the election

Manifestos[edit]

• Prosperity With a Purpose, 1964 Conservative Party manifesto
• The New Britain, 1964 Labour Party manifesto
• Think for Yourself, 1964 Liberal Party manifesto