United Kingdom general election, 1959

United Kingdom general election, 1959
United Kingdom
8 October 1959

All 630 seats in the House of Commons
316 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 78.7%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Harold Macmillan Hugh Gaitskell Jo Grimond
Party Conservative Labour Liberal
Leader since 10 January 1957 14 December 1955 5 November 1956
Leader's seat Bromley Leeds South Orkney and Shetland
Last election 345 seats, 49.7% 277 seats, 46.4% 6 seats, 2.7%
Seats won 365 258 6
Seat change Increase 20 Decrease 19 0
Popular vote 13,750,875 12,216,172 1,640,760
Percentage 49.4% 43.8% 5.9%
Swing Decrease 0.3% Decrease 2.6% Increase 3.2%

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

PM before election

Harold Macmillan
Conservative

Subsequent PM

Harold Macmillan
Conservative

1951 election MPs
1955 election MPs
1959 election MPs
1964 election MPs

This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, now led by Harold Macmillan. The Conservatives increased their overall majority again, to 100 seats over the Labour Party under Hugh Gaitskell. However, despite this success, they failed to win the most seats in Scotland, and have not done so since, marking the beginning of Labour's dominance until the rise of the Scottish National Party at the 2015 election.

Background

Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, Anthony Eden the Conservative Prime Minister became unpopular and resigned early the following year to be succeeded by Harold Macmillan. At this stage, the Labour Party, with Hugh Gaitskell having taken over as leader from Clement Attlee just after the 1955 election, enjoyed large opinion poll leads over the Conservatives, and it looked as if they could win.[1]

The Liberals also had a new leader in Jo Grimond, meaning that all three parties would contest the election with a new leader at the helm.[1]

However, the Conservatives enjoyed an upturn in fortunes as the economy improved under Macmillan, and his personal approval ratings remained high. By September, 1958, the Conservatives had moved ahead of Labour in the opinion polls.[1]

Campaign

This would be the first election in some time taking place after all of the three main parties changed their leaders. The Conservatives fought under the slogan "Life is better with the Conservatives, don't let Labour ruin it" and were aided by a pre-election economic boom. Macmillan very effectively "summed up" the mood of the British public when he said that most of the people had "never had it so good". Macmillan was very popular and was described as being a politician of the centre ground, he himself had once held a constituency in the north (Stockton-on-Tees) during the 1930s that had experienced large scale unemployment and poverty. The first week of polling put the Tories comfortably ahead of Labour by over 5%, which narrowed as the election progressed. The Labour Party fought a generally effective campaign, with television broadcasts masterminded by Tony Benn under the umbrella of their manifesto entitled "Britain belongs to you", which accused the Tories of complacency over the growing gap between the rich and poor.[2] Hugh Gaitskell made a mistake by declaring that a Labour government would not raise taxes if it came to power. This was despite the fact that the Labour manifesto contained pledges to increase spending, especially with regard to raising pensions. This led voters to doubt Labour's spending plans, and is usually cited as a key reason for their defeat.[1]

Result

Early on election night it became clear that the Conservative government had been returned with an increased majority. However, there were swings to Labour in parts of North West England, and in Scotland. For the 4th time in a row the Conservatives increased their number of seats at a general election, despite a slight drop in their share of the vote. For Labour the result was disappointing, despite appearing more united than they had in recent years under Gaitskell, the party had failed for the 3rd time to win an election. Future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was elected for the first time in Finchley.

The Daily Mirror, despite being a staunch supporter of the Labour Party, wished Macmillan "good luck" on its front page after his win.

The BBC's election coverage, presented by Richard Dimbleby, was shown on BBC Parliament on 9 October 2009 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.

365 258 6 1
Conservative Labour Lib O
UK General Election 1959
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Standing Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Conservative Harold Macmillan 625 365 28 8 + 20 57.9 49.4 13,750,875
  Labour Hugh Gaitskell 621 258 9 28 − 19 41.0 43.8 12,216,172
  Liberal Jo Grimond 216 6 1 1 0 1.0 5.9 1,640,760
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 20 0 0 0 0 0.3 77,571
  Sinn Féin Paddy McLogan 12 0 0 2 − 2 0.2 63,415
  Communist John Gollan 18 0 0 0 0 0.1 30,896
  SNP Jimmy Halliday 5 0 0 0 0 0.1 21,738
  Ind. Labour Group Frank Hanna 1 0 0 0 0 0.1 20,062
  Independent Conservative N/A 2 1 1 0 + 1 0.2 0.1 14,118
  Independent N/A 5 0 0 0 0 0.0 7,492
  Fife Socialist League Lawrence Daly 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,886
  Independent Liberal N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,473
  Union Movement Oswald Mosley 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 2,821
  Lancastrian Tom Emmott 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,889
  National Labour John Bean 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,685
  Fellowship Ronald Mallone 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,189
  Ind. Labour Party Fred Morel 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 923
  Socialist (GB) None 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 899
  Alert Party George Forrester 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 788

All parties shown. Conservatives include the National Liberal Party, Scottish Unionist Party and Ulster Unionists.

Government's new majority 100
Total votes cast 27,862,652
Turnout 78.7%

Votes summary

Popular Vote
Conservative and Unionist
 
49.4%
Labour
 
43.8%
Liberal
 
5.9%
Independent
 
0.2%
Others
 
1.0%

Headline Swing: 1.2% to Conservative

Seat summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative and Unionist
 
57.9%
Labour
 
41.0%
Liberal
 
1.0%
Independent Conservative
 
0.2%

Incumbents Defeated

Labour

Conservative

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "1959 election". BBC. Retrieved 20 May 2013.
  2. "1959: Macmillan wins Tory hat trick". BBC News. 5 April 2005.

Bibliography

Manifestos

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