United Kingdom general election, 1970

1964 election United Kingdom general election, 1964 The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power... • MPs MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1964 This is a list of members of Parliament elected to the Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 1964 general election, held on 15 October 1964, for the 43rd Parliament of the United Kingdom....
1966 election United Kingdom general election, 1966 The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an 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... • MPs MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1966 This is a list of members of Parliament elected to the 44th Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 1966 general election, held on 31 March 1966.Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included David Owen, John Nott, Michael Heseltine, Jack Ashley, Donald Dewar, Gwyneth Dunwoody, John Pardoe and...
1970 election • MPs MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1970 This is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom in the 1970 general election held on 18 June 1970.Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included John Prescott, Norman Tebbit, Ian Paisley, John Smith, Neil Kinnock, Kenneth Clarke, John Gummer, Alan...
February 1974 election United Kingdom general election, February 1974 The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,... • MPs
October 1974 election United Kingdom general election, October 1974 The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of... • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

under leader Edward Heath

Edward Heath

Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....

, who defeated the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

under Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

. The election also saw the Liberal Party

Liberal Party (UK)

The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe

John Jeremy Thorpe is a British former politician who was leader of the Liberal Party from 1967 to 1976 and was the Member of Parliament for North Devon from 1959 to 1979. His political career was damaged when an acquaintance, Norman Scott, claimed to have had a love affair with Thorpe at a time...

lose half their seats. The Conservatives, including the Ulster Unionists

Ulster Unionist Party

The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

, were given a majority of 31. The election was the first in which people could vote from the age of 18, after the Representation of the People Act 1969

Representation of the People Act 1969

The Representation of the People Act 1969 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It extended suffrage to 18-20 year olds. Previously, only those 21 or over were permitted to vote...

.

Most opinion poll

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

s prior to the election had indicated a comfortable Labour victory and had put Labour up to 12.4% ahead of the Conservatives. However on election day, a late swing gave the Conservatives a 3.4% lead.

The Election date was supposedly chosen because Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

wanted to go to the polls before the introduction of decimal coinage in early 1971, for which his government had been responsible and which he thought was hugely unpopular and because Wilson sought to gain some momentum by surprising the Conservatives, who were expecting an October election.

Commentators believed that an unexpectedly bad set of balance of payments figures released in polling week, and loss of national prestige after the England football team's defeat in the World Cup, contributed to the Labour defeat.

Other factors that were cited as reasons for the Conservative victory included union indiscipline, rising prices, the risk of devaluation, the government’s imposition of Selective Employment Tax (SET) and a set of jobless figures released on polling day showing unemployment at its highest level since 1940. Interviewed by Robin Day

Robin Day

Sir Robin Day, OBE was a British political broadcaster and commentator. His obituary in the Guardian stated that "he was the most outstanding television journalist of his generation...

, the outgoing Prime Minister Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

highlighted the possibility that “complacency engendered by the opinion polls” may have resulted in a poor turnout of Labour supporters.

American pollster Douglas Schoen and Oxford University academic R. W. Johnson asserted that Enoch Powell

Enoch Powell

John Enoch Powell, MBE was a British politician, classical scholar, poet, writer, and soldier. He served as a Conservative Party MP and Minister of Health . He attained most prominence in 1968, when he made the controversial Rivers of Blood speech in opposition to mass immigration from...

had attracted 2.5 million votes to the Conservatives, although the Conservative vote only increased by 1.7 million. Johnson later stated "It became clear that Powell had won the 1970 election for the Tories...of all those who had switched their vote from one party to another, 50 per cent were working class Powellites". The Professor of Political Science Randall Hansen

Randall Hansen

Randall Hansen is a political scientist and historian at the University of Toronto, where he has held a Canada Research Chair in Political Science since 2005. He is a Full Professor and is jointly appointed to the School of Public Policy and Governance....

assessed a range of studies, including some which contended that Powell had made little or no difference to the result, but concluded that “At the very least, Powell's effect was likely to have fired up the Conservative vote in constituencies which would have voted Tory in any event”. Election night commentators Michael Barratt and Jeffrey Preece both dismissed any special ‘Powell factor’, as did Conservative MPs Reginald Maudling

Reginald Maudling

Reginald Maudling was a British politician who held several Cabinet posts, including Chancellor of the Exchequer. He had been spoken of as a prospective Conservative leader since 1955, and was twice seriously considered for the post; he was Edward Heath's chief rival in 1965...

, Timothy Raison

Timothy Raison

Sir Timothy Hugh Francis Raison , was a British Conservative politician who began his career as a journalist, first working on Picture Post , then New Scientist...

and Hugh Dykes.

The most notable casualty of the election was George Brown

George Brown, Baron George-Brown

George Alfred Brown, Baron George-Brown, PC was a British Labour politician, who served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 1960 to 1970, and served in a number of positions in the Cabinet, most notably as Foreign Secretary, in the Labour Government of the 1960s...

, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, who lost to the Conservative candidate in the Belper

Belper (UK Parliament constituency)

Belper is a former constituency in the UK Parliament. It was created at the 1918 general election as a county division of Derbyshire, comprising the area in the centre of the county and surrounding Derby, and named after the market town of Belper although this was in the north of the constituency....

constituency. Brown had held the seat since 1945.

Unusually for the Liberals the by-elections between 1966-1970 had proved fruitless, with many Liberal candidates losing deposits. The Liberals found themselves struggling to introduce their new leader Jeremy Thorpe

Jeremy Thorpe

to the public due to the extensive coverage and attention paid to Enoch Powell. The election result was poor for the Liberals, with Thorpe only narrowly winning his own seat in North Devon

North Devon

North Devon is the northern part of the English county of Devon. It is also the name of a local government district in Devon. Its council is based in Barnstaple. Other towns and villages in the North Devon District include Braunton, Fremington, Ilfracombe, Instow, South Molton, Lynton and Lynmouth...

.

On the BBC, the election coverage was led by Cliff Michelmore

Cliff Michelmore

Arthur Clifford "Cliff" Michelmore CBE is a British television presenter and producer. He is best known for the BBC television programme Tonight, which he presented from 1957 to 1965....

along with Robin Day

Robin Day

Sir Robin Day, OBE was a British political broadcaster and commentator. His obituary in the Guardian stated that "he was the most outstanding television journalist of his generation...

, David Butler

David Butler

David Butler may refer to:*David Butler , first governor of Nebraska*David Butler , UNLV Runnin' Rebels basketball player...

and Robert McKenzie. There were various cutaways to the BBC regions. The coverage has been rerun on BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament is a British television channel from the BBC. Its remit is to make accessible to all the work of the parliamentary and legislative bodies of the United Kingdom and the European Parliament...

on several occasions, including on 18 July 2005 as a tribute to Edward Heath upon his death the previous day. Its most recent screening was on 9 October 2010. BBC coverage of the 1970 general election was parodied by Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

in its famous Election Night Special
Election Night Special
"Election Night Special" is a Monty Python sketch parodying the coverage of United Kingdom general elections, specifically the 1970 general election, on the BBC by including hectic actions by the media and a range of ridiculous candidates....

sketch.

Timeline

The Prime Minister

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...

Harold Wilson

visited Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace, in London, is the principal residence and office of the British monarch. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is a setting for state occasions and royal hospitality...

on 18 May and asked the Queen

Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom

Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...

to dissolve Parliament on 29 May, announcing that the election would be held on 18 June. The key dates were as follows:

Friday 29 May	Dissolution of the 44th parliament MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1966 This is a list of members of Parliament elected to the 44th Parliament of the United Kingdom at the 1966 general election, held on 31 March 1966.Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included David Owen, John Nott, Michael Heseltine, Jack Ashley, Donald Dewar, Gwyneth Dunwoody, John Pardoe and... and campaigning officially begins
Monday 8 June	Last day to file nomination papers
Wednesday 17 June	Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 18 June	Polling day
Friday 19 June	The Conservative Party wins power with a majority of 31
Monday 29 June	45th parliament MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1970 This is a list of Members of Parliament elected to the 45th Parliament of the United Kingdom in the 1970 general election held on 18 June 1970.Notable newcomers to the House of Commons included John Prescott, Norman Tebbit, Ian Paisley, John Smith, Neil Kinnock, Kenneth Clarke, John Gummer, Alan... assembles
Thursday 2 July	State Opening of Parliament State Opening of Parliament In the United Kingdom, the State Opening of Parliament is an annual event that marks the commencement of a session of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is held in the House of Lords Chamber, usually in November or December or, in a general election year, when the new Parliament first assembles...

Opinion poll summary

Summary of the final polling results before the general election.

Party	Marplan	Gallup	National Opinion Polls (NOP)	Opinion Research Centre (OPC)	Harris
Conservative	41.5%	42.0%	44.1%	46.5%	46.0%
Labour	50.2%	49.0%	48.2%	45.5%	48.0%
Liberal	7.0%	7.5%	6.4%	6.5%	5.0%
Others	1.3%	1.5%	1.3%	1.5%	1.0%
Labour lead	8.7%	7.0%	4.1%	-1.0%	2.0%
Fieldwork dates	June 11-14	June 14-16	June 12-16	June 13-17	May 20 - June 16
Sample size	2267	2190	1562	1583	4841

Results

This would be the first general election where 18 year olds had the right to vote. Therefore despite 1.1 million more people voting in 1970 compared to 1966, turnout actually fell by 3%. Labour's number of votes, 12.2 million, was ironically the same amount they had needed to win in 1964. The Tory vote surge cost Labour in many marginal seats. As for the Liberals a small 1% drop in their vote share saw them lose 6 seats, 3 of which were held by the narrowest of margins.

In the end the Conservatives achieved a swing of 4.7%, enough to give them a comfortable working majority. As for the smaller parties, they increased their number in the commons from 2 to 6 seats.

|}

All parties are listed. The Conservative figure includes eight Ulster Unionists
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

Government's new majority	30
Total votes cast	28,305,534
Turnout	72%

Votes summary

Seats summary

Televised declarations

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

Constituency	Winning party 1966		Constituency result by party						Winning party 1970
Constituency	Winning party 1966		Con	Lab	Lib	PC	SNP	Others	Winning party 1970
Guildford Guildford (UK Parliament constituency) Guildford is a county constituency in Surrey which returns one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, elected by the first-past-the-post voting system....	27,203	13,108	8,822			hold
Cheltenham	22,823	14,213	8,431			hold
Salford West Salford West (UK Parliament constituency) Salford West was a parliamentary constituency in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester from 1885 until 1983. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.- History :...	14,310	16,986				hold
Wolverhampton North East	15,358	17,251				1,592 hold
Salford East Salford East (UK Parliament constituency) Salford East was a parliamentary constituency in the City of Salford in Greater Manchester. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....	9,583	15,853	3,000			hold
Wolverhampton South West	26,252	11,753	2,459			318 hold
Newcastle upon Tyne Central Newcastle upon Tyne Central (UK Parliament constituency) Newcastle upon Tyne Central is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...	4,256	13,671	1,433			hold
Newcastle upon Tyne North Newcastle upon Tyne North (UK Parliament constituency) Newcastle upon Tyne North is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-Boundaries:...	15,978	12,518				hold
Exeter Exeter (UK Parliament constituency) Exeter is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....	21,680	20,409	6,672			gain

Manifestos

A Better Tomorrow – 1970 Conservative Party manifesto
Now Britain's strong – let's make it great to live in – 1970 Labour Party manifesto
What a Life! – 1970 Liberal Party manifesto

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