1966 United Kingdom general election

The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

1966 United Kingdom general election

31 March 1966
All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	75.8% (1.3 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Huyton Bexley Orkney and Shetland Last election 317 seats, 44.1% 304 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 11.2% Seats won 364 253 12 Seat change 47 51 3 Popular vote 13,096,951 11,418,433 2,327,533 Percentage 48.0% 41.9% 8.5% Swing 3.9% 1.5% 2.7%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

Wilson decided to call a snap election since his government, elected a mere 17 months previously, in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last British general election in which the voting age was 21; Wilson's government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970.

This was the only election between 1945 and 1997 in which the Labour Party won a workable majority sustainable to last a full term. In the next seven general elections, the Labour Party would win a majority of seats only once (October 1974) and would lose five elections to the Conservatives. This election also noted the Labour Party achieving its third-highest vote-share (48%) and second largest total number of votes in history (the largest vote-share being the 49.7% achieved in the 1945 election).

Background

Prior to the 1966 general election, Labour had performed poorly in local elections in 1965, and lost a by-election, cutting their majority to just two. Shortly after the local elections, the leader of the Conservative Party Alec Douglas-Home was replaced by Edward Heath in the 1965 leadership election.

Despite setbacks and a small majority, Labour believed it had an advantage due to the disorientation from the change of leadership at the Conservative Party, the improvement of economic conditions under its brief government, and a victory at the 1966 Kingston upon Hull North by-election. The Conservatives had not had much time to prepare their campaign, although it was more professional than previously. There had been little time for Heath to become well known among the British public, having led the party for just eight months before the election. For the Liberal Party, money was an issue: two elections in the space of just two years had left the party in a tight financial position and had to field fewer candidates. Labour ran its campaign with the slogan "You know Labour government works" and avoided commenting on controversial issues such as European integration, trade unions, and nationalisation.

The election night was broadcast live on the BBC, was presented by Cliff Michelmore, Ian Trethowan, Robin Day, Robert McKenzie and David Butler. The election was replayed on the BBC Parliament channel on the 40th anniversary of the event, and again in 2016 to mark the 50th anniversary of the election.

Although the BBC's telecast was in black and white, a couple of colour television cameras were placed in the BBC election studio at Television Centre to allow CBS's Charles Collingwood and NBC's David Brinkley to file live reports from that studio by satellite and in colour for their respective networks' evening news programmes (which were transmitted at 11:30 pm British time, 6:30 pm Eastern Standard Time).

Timeline

The Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, announced on 28 February that Parliament would be dissolved on 10 March, for an election to be held on 31 March. The key dates were as follows:

Thursday 10 March	Dissolution of the 43rd Parliament and campaigning officially begins
Monday 21 March	Last day to file nomination papers; 1,707 candidates enter to contest 630 seats
Wednesday 30 March	Campaigning officially ends
Thursday 31 March	Polling day
Friday 1 April	The Labour Party wins with an improved majority of 98
Monday 18 April	44th Parliament assembles
Thursday 21 April	State Opening of Parliament

Opinion polling

Main article: Opinion polling for the 1966 United Kingdom general election

• Research Services: 3% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 101)
• National opinion polls: 3.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 115)
• Gallup: 4.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of 150)
• Express (known as Harris): 7.5% swing to Labour (forecast majority of in excess of 255)

Results

The Labour Party performed very well in the election and expanded its previously slim majority against the Conservative opposition to 97 seats, accomplishing a net gain of 48 seats. It won 364 seats from 48 per cent of the vote, against 253 seats from 41.4 per cent for the Conservatives and 12 seats from 8 per cent for the Liberals. A major reason for the Labour victory was the revitalization of the party's working-class support in the 1960s. It captured its highest support yet from manual laborers at 69 per cent, as well as its best performance for non-manual laborers since 1945. The government also appealed to both the right wing of the party with its cabinet dominated by junior ministers of the Attlee ministry as well as the left wing by the presence of officials such as Prime Minister Wilson, Richard Crossman, Barbara Castle, and Frank Cousins. Although the party would go on to win more seats under Tony Blair (1997, 2001) and Keir Starmer (2024), Labour have never since matched the 48% of the popular vote they won in 1966.

UK General Election 1966

All parties shown.

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Harold Wilson	622	364	48	1	+47	57.8	48.0	13,096,629	+3.9
	Conservative	Edward Heath	629	253	0	51	−51	40.2	41.9	11,418,455	−1.5
	Liberal	Jo Grimond	311	12	5	2	+3	1.9	8.5	2,327,457	−2.7
	SNP	Arthur Donaldson	23	0	0	0	0		0.5	128,474	+0.3
	Ind. Republican	N/A	5	0	0	0	0		0.2	62,782	N/A
	Communist	John Gollan	57	0	0	0	0		0.2	62,092	0.0
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	20	0	0	0	0		0.2	61,071	−0.1
	Independent	N/A	15	0	0	0	0		0.1	35,039	N/A
	Republican Labour	Gerry Fitt	1	1	1	0	+1	0.2	0.1	26,292	0.0
	Nationalist	Eddie McAteer	1	0	0	0	0		0.1	22,167	N/A
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,689	N/A
	British National	John Bean	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	5,182	0.0
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,089	N/A
	Union Movement	Oswald Mosley	4	0	0	0	0		0.0	4,075	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,031	N/A
	Fellowship	Ronald Mallone	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	906	0.0
	National Democratic	David Brown	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	769	N/A
	National Teenage	Screaming Lord Sutch	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	585	N/A
	Ind. Labour Party	Emrys Thomas	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	441	0.0
	Socialist (GB)	N/A	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	333	0.0
	Radical Alliance	Pat Arrowsmith	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	163	N/A
	Patriotic Party	Richard Hilton	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	126	0.0

Government's new majority	98
Total votes cast	27,264,747
Turnout	75.8%

Votes summary

Popular vote Labour   48.04% Conservative   41.88% Liberal   8.54% Others   1.55%

Headline swing: 2.7% to Labour

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Labour   57.78% Conservative   40.16% Liberal   1.90% Others   0.16%

Incumbents defeated

Party		Name	Constituency	Office held whilst in Parliament	Defeated by	Party
	Conservative	Priscilla Buchan	Aberdeen South		Donald Dewar		Labour
		Forbes Hendry	Aberdeenshire West		James Davidson		Liberal
		Geoffrey Howe	Bebington		Edwin Brooks		Labour
		Norman Cole	Bedfordshire South		Gwilym Roberts		Labour
		William Anstruther-Gray	Berwick and East Lothian	Chairman of the 1922 Committee	John Mackintosh		Labour
		Edward Gardner	Billericay		Eric Moonman		Labour
		Wyndham Davies	Birmingham Perry Barr		Christopher Price		Labour
		Arthur Tiley	Bradford West		Norman Haseldine		Labour
		Dudley Smith	Brentford and Chiswick		Michael Barnes		Labour
		Alan Hopkins	Bristol North East		Raymond Dobson		Labour
		Martin McLaren	Bristol North West		John Ellis		Labour
		Donald Box	Cardiff North		Ted Rowlands		Labour
		William Shepard	Cheadle		Michael Winstanley		Liberal
		Patricia Hornsby-Smith	Chislehurst		Alistair Macdonald		Labour
		Peter Thomas	Conwy		Ednyfed Hudson Davies		Labour
		James Scott-Hopkins	Cornwall North		John Pardoe		Liberal
		Richard Thompson	Croydon South		David Winnick		Labour
		Anthony Meyer	Eton and Slough		Joan Lestor		Labour
		Rolf Dudley-Williams	Exeter		Gwyneth Dunwoody		Labour
		Henry Brooke	Hampstead	Former Home Secretary	Ben Whitaker		Labour
		Anthony Courtney	Harrow East		Roy Roebuck		Labour
		David Walder	High Peak		Peter Jackson		Labour
		Godfrey Lagden	Hornchurch		Alan Lee Williams		Labour
		Albert Cooper	Ilford South		Arnold Shaw		Labour
		Humphry Berkeley	Lancaster		Stan Henig		Labour
		Christopher Chataway	Lewisham North		Roland Moyle		Labour
		Patrick McNair-Wilson	Lewisham West		James Dickens		Labour
		John Barlow	Middleton and Prestwich		Denis Coe		Labour
		Peter Thorneycroft	Monmouth	Former Chancellor of the Exchequer	Donald Anderson		Labour
		William Clark	Nottingham South		George Perry		Labour
		Montague Woodhouse	Oxford		Evan Luard		Labour
		Ian Montagu Fraser	Plymouth Sutton		David Owen		Labour
		Terence Clarke	Portsmouth West		Frank Judd		Labour
		Julian Amery	Preston North	Former Secretary of State for Air	Ronald Atkins		Labour
		Peter Emery	Reading		John Lee		Labour
		Roy Wise	Rugby		William Price		Labour
		Martin Redmayne	Rushcliffe		Antony Gardner		Labour
		Peter Griffiths	Smethwick		Andrew Faulds		Labour
		John Fletcher-Cooke	Southampton Test		Bob Mitchell		Labour
		Samuel Storey	Stretford	Chairman of Ways and Means	Ernest Davies		Labour
		William Yates	The Wrekin		Gerald Fowler		Labour
		Charles Curran	Uxbridge		John Ryan		Labour
		John Harvey	Walthamstow East		William Robinson		Labour
		Anthony Fell	Great Yarmouth		Hugh Gray		Labour
		Charles Longbottom	York		Alex Lyon		Labour
	Labour	Patrick Duffy	Colne Valley		Richard Wainwright		Liberal
	Liberal	Roderic Bowen	Cardigan		Elystan Morgan		Labour
		George Mackie	Caithness and Sutherland		Robert Maclennan		Labour

Televised declarations

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

From BBC Parliament Replay

Constituency	Winning party 1964		Constituency result 1966 by party						Winning party 1966
			Con	Lab	Lib	PC	SNP	Others
Cheltenham		Conservative	22,683	19,768						Conservative hold
Wolverhampton North East		Labour	12,965	21,067						Labour hold
Wolverhampton South West		Conservative	21,466	14,881						Conservative hold
Salford West		Labour	13,257	19,237						Labour hold
Salford East		Labour	9,000	18,409						Labour hold
Exeter		Conservative	18,613	22,189	4,869					Labour gain
Devon North		Liberal	15,631	6,127	16,797					Liberal hold
Smethwick		Conservative	14,550	18,440				508		Labour gain
Nelson and Colne		Labour	13,829	18,406				5,117		Labour hold
Leyton		Labour	18,157	26,803	3,851			441		Labour recovery
Huyton		Labour	20,182	41,132				585		Labour hold
Billericay		Conservative	38,371	40,013	7,587					Labour gain
Preston South		Labour	17,931	20,720						Labour hold
Bexley		Conservative	26,377	24,044	4,405					Conservative hold
Brentford and Chiswick		Conservative	14,031	14,638	2,063					Labour gain
Aberdeenshire West		Conservative	13,956	6,008	15,151					Liberal gain
Taunton		Conservative	22,359	19,216	5,460					Conservative hold
Monmouth		Conservative	25,654	28,619						Labour gain

• The 5,117 votes polled for the "Others" in Nelson and Colne were all polled for Patrick Downey, uncle of Lesley Ann Downey, who had been murdered by the Moors Murderers. Downey advocated the return of hanging.

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1966 United Kingdom general election
• 1966 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1966 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
• 1966 United Kingdom general election in England

Further reading

• Bromhead, Peter. "The General Election of 1966". Parliamentary Affairs 19.3 (1966): 332-345.

• Butler, David E., and Anthony King. The British General Election of 1966 (1966); the standard scholarly study.
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302

• Kavanaugh, Dennis. "1966: An Opportunity Squandered" in Andrew S. Crines, and Kevin Hickson, eds. Harold Wilson: The Unprincipled Prime Minister?: A Reappraisal of Harold Wilson (Biteback Publishing, 2016) pp. 39-56.

• Pimlott, Ben. Harold Wilson (HarperCollins, 1992) pp.395-404.
• Schaffer, B.B. "The British General Election, 1964: A Retrospect", Australian Journal of Politics and History (1965) 11#1 pp. 7-22, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8497.1965.tb00411.x.

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 23 February 2008 at the Wayback Machine

Manifestos

• Action Not Words: The New Conservative Programme, 1966 Conservative Party manifesto
• Time for Decision, 1966 Labour Party manifesto
• For All the People: the Liberal Plan of 1966, 1966 Liberal Party manifesto