United Kingdom general election, 1959

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	20	19	0
Popular vote	13,750,875	12,216,172	1,640,760
Percentage	49.4%	43.8%	5.9%
Swing	0.3%	2.6%	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

References

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

Bibliography

Butler, David E.; Rose, R. (1960). The British General Election of 1959. London: Macmillan. The standard scholarly study.
Craig, F. W. S. (1989). British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987. Parliamentary Research Services, Dartmouth. ISBN 0-900178-30-2.
"United Kingdom election results – summary results 1885–1979".
Thorpe, Andrew (2001). A History of the British Labour Party. Palgrave. ISBN 0-333-92908-X.

Manifestos

The Next Five Years- 1959 Conservative manifesto.
Britain Belongs to You: The Labour Party's Policy for Consideration by the British People - 1959 Labour Party manifesto.
People Count - 1959 Liberal Party manifesto.

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