United Kingdom general election, 1964

15 October 1964

All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority

Turnout	77.1%
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Harold Wilson	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 and 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%	5.3%

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

PM before election

Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Conservative

Subsequent PM

Harold Wilson
Labour

1955 election • MPs
1959 election • MPs
1964 election • MPs
1966 election • MPs
1970 election • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was won by the Labour Party with an overall majority of four seats. The election was held on 15 October 1964, just over five years after the previous election, and 13 years after the Conservative Party had retaken power.

Background

Both major parties had changed leaders 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 Conservatives in government since January 1957. Despite initial popularity and a resounding election victory in 1959, he had become increasingly unpopular in the early 1960s, and 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

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 by Richard Dimbleby, with Robin Day, Ian Trethowan, Cliff Michelmore and David Butler.^[2]

Opinion poll summary

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).^[3]

Result

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.

↓
317	304	9
Labour	Conservatives and Unionist allies	Lib

UK general election 1964
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Standing	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
	Independent 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
	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
	True Conservative	John E. Dayton	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	709
	Agriculturalist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	534
	National Democratic	David Brown	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	349
	Socialist (GB)	None	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
	Christian Socialist	None	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	265

All parties are shown. Conservative total includes Scottish Unionists, Ulster Unionists, and National Liberals.

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

Votes summary

Popular vote

Labour			44.1%
Conservative and Allies			43.4%
Liberal			11.2%
Independent			0.5%
Others			0.7%

Headline Swing: 3.1% to Labour

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Labour			50.3%
Conservative and Allies			48.3%
Liberal			1.4%
Others			0%

Regional Results

Great Britain

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

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

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

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

Party			Votes	% of vote	Candidates	Seats	% of seats
	Conservative & Unionist		401,897	63.0	12	12	100.0
		Ulster Unionist Party	401,897	63.0	12	12	100.0
	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

Incumbents defeated

Conservative

Labour

Liberal

Arthur Holt (Bolton West)
Donald Wade (Huddersfield West) - Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party

Televised declarations

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
Constituency	Winning party 1959		Con	Lab	Lib	Others	Winning party 1964
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".

References

↑ 1964: Labour scrapes through BBC News
↑ Election night 1964 results round-up
↑ This summary of opinion poll findings from the last few days of the campaign is given early in the BBC's election night coverage.

External links

United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Manifestos

"PROSPERITY WITH A PURPOSE" - 1964 Conservative manifesto.
"THE NEW BRITAIN" - 1964 Labour Party manifesto.
"THINK FOR YOURSELF" - 1964 Liberal Party manifesto.

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Harold Wilson

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx

Premierships	1964–1970 1974–1976

General elections	1964 1966 1970 February 1974 October 1974

Party elections	1960 1963

Constituencies	Ormskirk Huyton

Resignation Honours	1970 1976

Family	Mary Wilson, Baroness Wilson of Rievaulx Hon. Robin Wilson

Related articles	Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence Beira Patrol D-notice affair Gnomes of Zürich Harold Wilson conspiracy theories Clockwork Orange Harry letters affair The Lavender List Wilson Doctrine Bibliography

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