United Kingdom general election, October 1974
- Labour: 319
- Tories: 277
- Otherwise:. 39
The early British general election in October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974. In the elections of the deputies of the lower house (House of Commons ) were redetermined. The election was won by the Labour Party under Harold Wilson with a very narrow majority of three seats. This was the last victory of Labour in a general election until the election in 1997, 23 years later.
Prehistory
The election to the House in February of the same year had unexpectedly produced no clear majority in parliament and parliament led to a so called relationship. Then coalition talks between liberals and conservatives on the one hand and on the other hand Labour had been initiated, but did not reach any agreement whereby the Labor chairman Harold Wilson formed a minority Labour government under his leadership. Due to lack of majorities, he announced in a televised address on September 18, 1974, to re- election for October. The success of the Wilson government in its brief tenure was the settlement of the great miners' strikes, which had brought the previous government Heath in distress. Wilson also understood sent to keep the intra-party tensions of Labour concerning the accession to the European Economic Community, which was done in 1973 under control. He promised to hold a referendum on membership, which took place under his government in 1975. The Conservatives, led by Edward Heath were affected by the fact that the Northern Irish Ulster Unionist Party refused in protest of the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement closed to cooperate with the Conservatives in Westminster.
Electoral system
Was chosen according to the simple majority system. A restrictive clause did not exist.
Election result
Election winner was the Labour Party. She took 39.3 percent of the vote, reaching 319 of 635 seats a scant absolute majority. The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party suffered slight losses. As a result of the defeat of the Conservative Party chairman Heath was replaced by Margaret Thatcher in February 1975. The Scottish National Party (SNP ) achieved their best result so far with 11 of 71 Scottish constituencies and 30 % of Scottish voters.