1964 United Kingdom general election

1964 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons; 316 seats needed for a majority
	Opinion polls
Turnout	77.1% (1.7 pp)
	Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
	Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election; Alec Douglas-Home; Conservative	Prime Minister after election ; Harold Wilson; Labour

The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 15 October 1964. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by incumbent Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition since the 1951 election. Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894.

Background

Both major parties had changed leadership in 1963. Following the sudden death of Labour leader Hugh Gaitskell early in the year, the party chose Harold Wilson (at the time, thought of as being on the party's centre-left), while Alec Douglas-Home, at the time the Earl of Home, had taken over as Conservative leader and Prime Minister in October after Harold Macmillan announced his resignation in the wake of the Profumo affair. Douglas-Home shortly afterward disclaimed his peerage under the Peerage Act 1963 in order to lead the party from the Commons, subsequently standing in the Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election.

Macmillan had led the Conservative government since January 1957. Despite initial popularity and a resounding election victory in 1959, he had become increasingly unpopular in the early 1960s, due to rising unemployment and inflation during the recession of 1960–1961 and the United States' cancellation of the Skybolt program intended to provide Britain with an independent nuclear weapons delivery system after the cancellation of the Blue Streak project. Although Macmillan ended the latter crisis with the Nassau Agreement guaranteeing US assistance in the Polaris programme of submarine-launched ballistic missiles, this also indirectly harmed his reputation after French President Charles de Gaulle vetoed Britain's accession bid to the European Communities over his scepticism of the Anglo-American "Special Relationship."^[1]

However, the Labour Party was temporarily divided due to the death of Gaitskell in 1963 and the subsequent leadership election. Although Wilson won this election against his opponents George Brown and James Callaghan, he was mistrusted within the party because of his previous unsuccessful leadership challenge to Gaitskell in 1960.^[2] The party also suffered from internal policy disputes over unilateral nuclear disarmament and Clause IV of its constitution, which committed it to nationalisation of industry.^[3]

It was for a while thought likely that the Conservatives would win the scheduled 1964 general election, albeit with a reduced majority, but the emergence of the Profumo affair in March 1963 and Macmillan's handling of the matter all but destroyed the credibility of his government. While he survived a vote of no confidence in June 1963, polling indicated that Labour would win the next election comfortably if Macmillan remained in power, which, along with health issues, prompted Macmillan to announce his resignation in the autumn of 1963.

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.^[4] 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 Labour Party indicated that it held high popular support by winning the 1964 London local elections. This led to speculation that the Conservative government would not call an election in 1964 despite constitutional precedent requiring it do so quinquennially in peacetime.^{[citation needed]} However, Conservative leaders became more optimistic about their chances after winning three by-elections in Winchester, Bury St. Edmunds, and Devizes. The election campaign formally began on 25 September 1964 when Douglas-Home saw the Queen and asked for a dissolution of Parliament. The dissolution notably occurred without a formal royal prorogation and recall for the first time since 1922.^[5]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The Labour Party campaigned on what historian Andrew Thorpe called "the basis of revisionism given a significant twist in the direction of Wilsonian planning, and a more dirigiste approach to industrial modernization."^[2] Labour's manifesto Let's Go with Labour for New Britain reflected Wilson's belief that social justice and technological progress would transform industry to create a planned economy capable of providing full employment, rapid economic growth, favourable balance of trade, and control of inflation.^{[citation needed]} Party leaders also decided that they had lost the previous election because of their failure to appeal to the growing middle class, and adjusted strategy accordingly.^[6]

Labour called for greater co-ordination between state-run enterprises and repeated its past pledges for the renationalisation of the steel and road haulage industries, but declared that it would not nationalise any further industries. The party also promised expansions of social services, tax reform, and what would become the prices and incomes policy to control inflation. In education it sought comprehensivisation of secondary education and a higher school-leaving age, while in immigration it sought both immigration quotas restricting future entry and equal rights for immigrants who had already arrived in the country. In foreign policy it pledged a re-evaluation of previous governments' foreign aid and alliances, increased British assertiveness at the United Nations, and a build-up of the conventional components of the British Armed Forces, but did not promise unilateral nuclear disarmament as some left-wing members of the party desired.^[2]^[7] While early campaigning suggested that a Labour government would abandon the Polaris nuclear weapons programme, Wilson quickly decided to avoid this topic altogether due to the continuing popularity of an independent British nuclear deterrent.^[8] Labour's platform of a "socialist foreign policy" also criticised the Conservative government for its handling of a scandal involving the British defence contractor Ferranti, the Aden Emergency, Cypriot intercommunal violence, the escalation of the Vietnam War, arms sales to apartheid South Africa, and a contract to construct naval frigates for Francoist Spain.^[9]

Douglas-Home's unpopularity – caused by his aristocratic background, his accession to the premiership without a formal election, his economic and trade policies, and the side-lining of popular Conservative leaders such as Enoch Powell and Iain Macleod – harmed the Conservative Party in the election. Even many Conservatives condemned Douglas-Home for the Resale Prices Act 1964 abolishing resale price maintenance. Douglas-Home's predecessor Macmillan described him as an "urbane but resolute character — iron painted to look like wood".^[10] However, his campaigning did allow the Conservative Party's gap in the polls to narrow.^[11]^[12]^[13] The Conservative manifesto Prosperity with a Purpose pledged closer relations with the Atlantic world and the Commonwealth of Nations, development of nuclear power, industrial retraining, increased capital investment in British industry, and continued development of the BAC TSR-2 supersonic aircraft project.^[14]^[15] The Conservative campaign emphasised the party's diplomatic successes, such as the Nassau Agreement, the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the defence of Malaysia in the Borneo Confrontation.^[9] Although the Conservatives made limited appeals to new Caribbean, African, and South Asian immigrants by printing campaign literature in Hindi and Urdu, it defended the Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 restricting immigration of Commonwealth citizens.^[16]

As in previous elections since its decline, the Liberal Party under Jo Grimond's leadership positioned itself as a non-socialist, individualist alternative to Labour. The two key domestic policy pledges in its manifesto Think for Yourself, Vote Liberal were healthcare reform and devolution for Scotland and Wales.^[14] The Liberals also were distinguished by their internationalist and pro-European foreign policy, becoming the first major party to endorse British membership in the European Economic Union. Supporters and leaders of the Liberal Party hoped for a breakthrough in 1964 which would re-establish it as a powerful force in British politics after its near-extinction in the 1950s; the party's surprise victory in the 1962 Orpington by-election, its first in a seat outside of the "Celtic fringe" of Wales, Scotland, and the West Country in over a decade, had created optimism and a sense of momentum for a recovery. However, by 1964 the Liberals had lost much of their momentum to a series of by-election and local election losses, and faced growing financial difficulties.^[17]

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. Douglas-Home's speeches dealt with the future of the nuclear deterrent, while fears of Britain's relative decline on the world stage, reflected in chronic balance of payment problems, helped the Labour Party's case.^[18]

By 1964, television had developed as a medium and played a much greater role than in previous British elections. The election received more coverage from current affairs programs such as BBC1's Panorama, Associated-Rediffusion's This Week, and Granada Television's World in Action, as well as political satire inspired by the success of That Was the Week That Was.^[7] The election night was broadcast live by BBC Television, presented for the fifth and final time by Richard Dimbleby, with Robin Day, Ian Trethowan, Cliff Michelmore and David Butler co-presenting.^[19]

Opinion polling

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)^{[note 2]}

Results

The Conservatives made a surprising recovery from being well behind Labour when Home became prime minister, and would have won if 900 voters in eight seats had changed votes.^[20] Labour won a very slim majority of four seats, forming a government for the first time since 1951. Labour achieved a swing of just over 3%, although its vote rose by only 0.3% and it earned a lesser number of votes than in its previous defeats of 1955 and 1959. The main shift in votes was a 5.7% swing from the Conservatives to the Liberals. The Liberals defied popular expectations of a net loss and won nearly twice as many votes as in 1959, partly because they fielded 150 more candidates. Although this was the Liberals' best electoral performance since the 1929 general election and left the party in a key parliamentary position due to Labour's slender majority, it failed to regain its pre-World War II status as a party of government as it had hoped.^[17] Wilson became Prime Minister, replacing Douglas-Home; Labour's four-seat majority was not sustainable for a full Parliament, and Wilson ultimately called another general election in 1966 which saw his majority expanded. In particular, the small majority meant the government could not implement its policy of renationalising the steel industry due to the opposition of backbenchers Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly.

89 female candidates stood in the election, with 29 women being elected as MPs (11 for the Conservatives and 18 for Labour).^[21]

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. It is also the only time that both Labour and the Conservatives have taken over 300 seats each, and was the last election in which any one party (the Conservatives) contested every single seat. The Conservatives had previously chose not to contest certain Liberal-held seats as per local-level agreements to avoid vote splitting, but ended that policy at this election. The resultant splitting of votes actually helped grant Labour a majority, by throwing two formerly Liberal-held seats in northern England to Labour; however, the outcome of the election would not have been meaningfully altered had the Liberals retained the seats, as Labour would still have had as many seats as the other two parties combined, and Liberal leader Jo Grimond did not want to support a Conservative minority government.

Douglas-Home told D. R. Thorpe that the most important reason for the Conservative loss was Iain Macleod's "The Tory Leadership" article, in which the former cabinet minister claimed that an Etonian "magic circle" conspiracy had led to him becoming prime minister.^[20] British Ambassador to the United States David Ormsby-Gore wrote to Home that "Almost anything could have tipped the balance. Khrushchev's removal from office twelve hours earlier, China’s nuclear explosion thirty-six hours earlier or just Rab [Butler] keeping his mouth shut for once."^[16] David Butler and Donald E. Stokes's influential 1969 British Election Study report Political Change in Britain attributed the Labour victory to Wilson's greater popularity than Home and the party's appeal to younger voters. After British elections in the 1980s and the 1990s challenged many of the assumptions of Butler and Stokes's model, the BES issued a second 2001 report by political scientists from the University of Texas and the University of Essex emphasizing the role of valence politics over public perception of party performance.^[22]

Working-class voters also selected Labour in greater numbers than in the previous election, due in part to the weakening of the post-war boom which had popularized the Conservatives in the 1950s, although the Conservatives attracted a greater number of female voters than before. The Conservatives tried to attract working-class voters by improving the party's relationships with trade unions through the Conservative Trade Union Councils at the party level and the new National Economic Development Council at the governmental level; however, their outreach was weakened by the Rookes v Barnard decision allowing employers to collect punitive damages from strike actions and Douglas-Home's tough approach to industrial relations.^[12]^[23]^[24] As a result, trade unions heavily supported Labour in the election and encouraged working-class support of the party.^[12] As much as 85 per cent of Labour's election spending consisted of funds raised by trade unions.^[25]

Aggregate data analyses of the results demonstrate higher turnout in constituencies dominated by the professional–managerial class, agricultural workers, council tenants, voters without automobiles, and the elderly.^[26] Many salaried professionals who ordinarily supported for the Conservatives voted for Labour because of high inflation.^{[citation needed]} On the other hand, Labour's poorer performance in central and southern England and loss of five seats in that area indicated an increasing white working-class backlash against nonwhite immigration. The most notable example of this was the contest in Smethwick, in which an explicitly racist campaign by Conservative candidate Peter Griffiths stoking anxieties around deindustrialisation and a shortage of council housing by targeting immigrants unseated Shadow Foreign Secretary Patrick Gordon Walker.^[2]^[16]^[27]

UK General Election 1964 ^[28]^[29]
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Harold Wilson	628	317	63	4	+59	50.3	44.1	12,205,808	+0.3
	Conservative	Alec Douglas-Home	630	304^{[note 1]}	4	65	−61	48.3	43.4	12,002,642	−6.0
	Liberal	Jo Grimond	365	9	5	2	+3	1.4	11.2	3,099,283	+5.3
	Ind. Republican	N/A	12	0	0	0	0		0.4	101,628	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	23	0	0	0	0		0.3	69,507	0.0
	SNP	Arthur Donaldson	15	0	0	0	0		0.2	64,044	+0.1
	Communist	John Gollan	36	0	0	0	0		0.2	46,442	+0.1
	Independent	N/A	20	0	0	0	0		0.1	18,677	N/A
	Independent Liberal	N/A	4	0	0	0	0		0.1	16,064	N/A
	Republican Labour	Gerry Fitt	1	0	0	0	0		0.1	14,678	N/A
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	5	0	0	1	−1		0.0	6,459	N/A
	British National	John Bean	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,410	N/A
	Anti-Common Market League	John Paul & Michael Shay	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	3,083	N/A
	Ind. Nuclear Disarmament	Pat Arrowsmith	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,534	N/A
	Fellowship	Ronald Mallone	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,112	0.0
	Patriotic Party	Richard Hilton	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,108	N/A
	League of Empire Loyalists	Arthur K. Chesterton	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,046	N/A
	Communist Anti-Revisionist	Michael McCreery	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	899	N/A
	Christian Progressive	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	865	N/A
	Taxpayers' Coalition Party	John E. Dayton	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	709	N/A
	Agriculturalist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	534	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	458	N/A
	National Democratic	David Brown	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	349	N/A
	Socialist (GB)	N/A	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	322	0.0
	World Government	Gilbert Young	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	318	N/A
	British and Commonwealth	Miles Blair	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	310	N/A
	Social Credit Party of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	John Hargrave	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	304	N/A
	Christian Socialist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	265	N/A

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

Votes summary

Popular vote

Labour			44.13%
Conservative			43.41%
Liberal			11.21%
Others			1.25%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Labour			50.32%
Conservative			48.25%
Liberal			1.43%

Transfers of seats

All comparisons are with the 1959 election.
- In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
- In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1964. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

		Seats
Labour	Labour (HOLD)	Aberavon, Aberdare, Aberdeen North, Abertillery, Accrington, Anglesey, Ashton-under-Lyne, Ayrshire Central, Ayrshire South, Barking, Barrow-in-Furness, Bedwellty, Belper, Birkenhead, Bishop Auckland, Blackburn, Blaydon, Bolsover, Bootle, Bosworth, Bothwell, Brecon and Radnor, Brigg, Bristol Central, Bristol South, Bristol South East⁴, Burnley, Caernarfon, Caerphilly, Cardiff South East, Cardiff West, Carmarthen, Chester-le-Street, Chesterfield, Chorley, Coatbridge and Airdrie, Consett, Crewe, Dagenham, Dartford, Derby North, Derby South, Derbyshire North East, Dudley, Dunbartonshire East, Dunbartonshire West, Dundee East, Dundee West, Dunfermline Burghs, Durham, Durham North West, Easington, East Ham N, East Ham S, Ebbw Vale, Eccles, Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh East, Edinburgh Leith, Erith and Crayford, Falmouth and Camborne, Farnworth, Faversham, Fife West, Flintshire East, Gateshead East, Gateshead West, Glasgow Bridgeton, Glasgow Central, Glasgow Craigton, Glasgow Gorbals, Glasgow Govan, Glasgow Maryhill, Glasgow Provan, Glasgow Scotstoun, Glasgow Shettleston, Glasgow Springburn, Gloucester, Gloucestershire West, Goole, Gower, Greenock, Grimsby, Hamilton, Houghton-le-Spring, Huyton, Ilkeston, Ince, Jarrow, Kilmarnock, Kingston upon Hull East, Kingston upon Hull West, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Lanark, Lanarkshire North, Leicester NE, Leicester NW, Leicester SW, Leigh, Leyton, Lincoln, Liverpool Edge Hill, Liverpool Exchange, Liverpool Scotland, Llanelli, Loughborough, Manchester Ardwick, Manchester Cheetham, Manchester Exchange, Manchester Gorton, Manchester Openshaw, Merionethshire, Merthyr Tydfil, Midlothian, Motherwell, Neath, Nelson and Colne, Newport (Monmouthshire), Newton, Ogmore, Oldbury and Halesowen, Oldham East, Oldham West, Paisley, Pembrokeshire, Pontypool, Pontypridd, Rhondda East, Rhondda West, Rochdale, Romford, Rossendale, Rowley Regis and Tipton, St Helens, Salford East, Salford West, Sedgefield, South Shields, Southampton Itchen, Stalybridge and Hyde, Stirling and Falkirk, Stirlingshire East and Clackmannan, Stirlingshire West, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland North, Swansea East, Thurrock, Walthamstow W, Warrington, West Ham North, West Ham South, West Lothian, Western Isles, Westhoughton, Whitehaven, Widnes, Wigan, Workington, Wrexham
	National Liberal
	Conservative	Eton and Slough, Smethwick
Liberal	Labour	Bolton West, Huddersfield West
Liberal	Liberal (HOLD)	Cardiganshire, Devon North, Montgomeryshire, Orkney and Shetland
National Liberal	Labour	Luton†, Renfrewshire West
	Liberal	Ross and Cromarty
	National Liberal (HOLD)	Bristol North East, Harwich, Holland with Boston, Huntingdonshire, St Ives
	Conservative	Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Bedfordshire South, Dumfries†, Fife East†, Plymouth Devonport
Conservative	Labour	Bolton East, Buckingham, Bury and Radcliffe, Carlisle, Derbyshire South East, Dover, Epping, Glasgow Kelvingrove, Glasgow Pollok, Glasgow Woodside†, Gravesend, The Hartlepools, Heywood and Royton, Hitchin, Kingston upon Hull North, Liverpool Kirkdale, Liverpool Toxteth, Liverpool Walton, Liverpool West Derby, Manchester Blackley, Manchester Wythenshawe, Preston South, Rochester and Chatham, Rutherglen†, Stockport North, Stockport South, Sunderland South, Swansea West, Watford
	Liberal	Bodmin, Inverness, Orpington†
	Conservative (HOLD)	Aberdeen South, Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Abingdon, Aldershot, Altrincham and Sale, Argyll, Ashford, Aylesbury, Ayr, Ayrshire North and Bute, Banff, Barnet, Barry, Basingstoke, Bebington, Beckenham, Bedford, Bedfordshire Mid, Berwick and East Lothian, Bexley, Billericay, Blackpool North, Blackpool South, Bournemouth East & Christchurch, Bournemouth West, Bridlington, Bristol North West, Bristol West, Bromley, Bromsgrove, Buckinghamshire South, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Canterbury, Cardiff North, Cheadle, Chelmsford, Cheltenham, Chester, Chigwell, Chislehurst, Cirencester and Tewkesbury, Clitheroe, Colchester, Conway, Cornwall North, Crosby, Darlington, Darwen, Denbigh, West Derbyshire, Dorset North, Dorset South³, Dorset West, Eastleigh, Edinburgh North, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh West, Essex SE, Exeter, Flintshire West, Folkestone and Hythe, Fylde North, Fylde South, Gainsborough, Galloway, Gillingham, Glasgow Cathcart, Glasgow Hillhead, Gloucestershire South, Gosport and Fareham, Grantham, Haltemprice, Harborough, Hemel Hempstead, Hereford, Hertford, Hertfordshire E, Hertfordshire SW, High Peak, Honiton, Horncastle, Hornchurch, Howden, Ilford North, Ilford South, Isle of Ely, Isle of Thanet, Isle of Wight, Kidderminster, Kinross and West Perthshire, Knutsford, Lancaster, Leicester South East, Leominster, Liverpool Garston, Liverpool Wavertree, Louth, Macclesfield, Maidstone, Maldon, Manchester Moss Side, Manchester Withington, Melton, Middleton and Prestwich, Monmouth, Moray and Nairn, Morecambe and Lonsdale, Nantwich, New Forest, Newbury, Northwich, Ormskirk, Plymouth Sutton, Penrith and the Border, Perth and East Perthshire, Petersfield, Poole, Portsmouth Langstone, Portsmouth South, Portsmouth West, Preston North, Reading, Renfrewshire East, Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles, Runcorn, Rutland and Stamford, Saffron Walden, St Albans, Sevenoaks, Southampton Test, Southend East, Southend West, Southport, Stretford, Stroud, Tavistock, Tiverton, Tonbridge, Torquay, Torrington, Totnes, Truro, Wallasey, Walthamstow East, Wanstead and Woodford, Westmorland, Winchester, Windsor, Wirral, Wokingham, Worcester, Worcestershire South, Wycombe
	Ind. Conservative
Ind. Conservative	Liberal	Caithness and Sutherland
UUP	UUP	North Antrim, South Antrim, Armagh, Belfast East, Belfast North, Belfast South, Belfast West, Down North, Down South, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Londonderry, Mid Ulster
Conservative	Speaker	Cities of London and Westminster

³ Seat gained by Labour in a by-election but regained by the Conservatives in 1964.
⁴ Seat gained by Conservatives in a 1961 by-election but regained by Labour in another 1963 by-election.

Incumbents defeated

	Name	Constituency	Office held whilst in power	Year elected	Defeated by
Conservative Party	Philip Holland	Acton		1959	Bernard Floud	Labour Party
	William Compton Carr	Barons Court		1959	Ivor Richard	Labour Party
	Ernest Partridge	Battersea South		1951	Ernie Perry	Labour Party
	John Hollingworth	Birmingham All Saints		1959	Brian Walden	Labour Party
	Leslie Seymour	Birmingham Sparkbrook		1959	Roy Hattersley	Labour Party
	Leonard Cleaver	Birmingham Yardley		1959	Ioan Evans	Labour Party
	Douglas Marshall	Bodmin		1945	Peter Bessell	Liberal Party
	William Taylor	Bradford North		1950	Ben Ford	Labour Party
	David James	Brighton Kemptown		1959	Dennis Hobden	Labour Party
	John Bidgood	Bury and Radcliffe		1955	David Ensor	Labour Party
	Donald Johnson	Carlisle		1955	Ronald Lewis	Labour Party
	Sir Alan Glyn	Clapham		1959	Margaret McKay	Labour Party
	Wilf Proudfoot	Cleveland		1959	James Tinn	Labour Party
	Philip Hocking	Coventry South		1959	Bill Wilson	Labour Party
	Anthony Bourne-Arton	Darlington		1959	Ted Fletcher	Labour Party
	Anthony Barber	Doncaster	Minister of Health	1951	Harold Walker	Labour Party
	John Arbuthnot	Dover		1950	David Ennals	Labour Party
	Graeme Finlay	Epping		1951	Stan Newens	Labour Party
	Frank Lilley	Glasgow Kelvingrove		1959	Maurice Miller	Labour Party
	Peter Kirk	Gravesend	Under-Secretary of State for War	1955	Albert Murray	Labour Party
	Maurice Macmillan	Halifax		1955	Shirley Summerskill	Labour Party
	Tony Leavey	Heywood and Royton		1955	Joel Barnett	Labour Party
	Martin Maddan	Hitchin		1955	Shirley Williams	Labour Party
	Geoffrey Johnson-Smith	Holborn and St Pancras South		1959	Lena Jeger	Labour Party
	Neil McLean	Inverness		1954	Russell Johnston	Liberal Party
	Marcus Worsley	Keighley		1959	John Binns	Labour Party
	Denys Bullard	King's Lynn		1959	Derek Page	Labour Party
	Michael Coulson	Kingston upon Hull North	Parliamentary Private Secretary	1959	Henry Solomons	Labour Party
	Norman Pannell	Liverpool Kirkdale		1955	James Dunn	Labour Party
	Reginald Bevins	Liverpool Toxteth	Postmaster General	1950	Richard Crawshaw	Labour Party
	Kenneth Thompson	Liverpool Walton		1950	Eric Heffer	Labour Party
	John Woollam	Liverpool West Derby		1954 by-election	Eric Ogden	Labour Party
	Eric Johnson	Manchester Blackley		1951	Paul Rose	Labour Party
	Eveline Hill	Manchester Wythenshawe		1950	Alf Morris	Labour Party
	Gordon Matthews	Meriden	Parliamentary Private Secretary	1959	Christopher Rowland	Labour Party
	Fergus Montgomery	Newcastle upon Tyne East	Parliamentary Private Secretary	1959	Geoffrey Rhodes	Labour Party
	Geoffrey Rippon	Norwich South		1955	Christopher Norwood	Labour Party
	John Cordeaux	Nottingham Central		1955	Jack Dunnett	Labour Party
	Peter Tapsell	Nottingham West		1959	Michael English	Labour Party
	Alan Green	Preston South	Financial Secretary to the Treasury	1955	Peter Mahon	Labour Party
	Hugh Linstead	Putney		1942 by-election	Hugh Jenkins	Labour Party
	Julian Critchley	Rochester and Chatham		1959	Anne Kerr	Labour Party
	Norman Hulbert	Stockport North		1950	Arnold Gregory	Labour Party
	Harold Steward	Stockport South		1955 by-election	Maurice Orbach	Labour Party
	Paul Williams	Sunderland South		1953 by-election	Gordon Bagier	Labour Party
	Hugh Rees	Swansea West	Parliamentary Private Secretary	1959	Alan Williams	Labour Party
	John Kerans	The Hartlepools		1959	Ted Leadbitter	Labour Party
	Michael Hughes-Young	Wandsworth Central	Treasurer of the Household	1955	David Kerr	Labour Party
	Frederick Farey-Jones	Watford		1955	Raphael Tuck	Labour Party
	Michael Hamilton	Wellingborough	Lord Commissioner of the Treasury	1959	Harry Howarth	Labour Party
	Trevor Skeet	Willesden East		1959	Reg Freeson	Labour Party
	Colin Turner	Woolwich West		1959	Bill Hamling	Labour Party
Labour Party	Charles Howell	Birmingham Perry Barr		1955	Wyndham Davies	Conservative Party
	Fenner Brockway	Eton and Slough		1950	Anthony Meyer	Conservative Party
	Albert Hilton	South West Norfolk		1959 by-election	Paul Hawkins	Conservative Party
	Patrick Gordon Walker	Smethwick	Shadow Foreign Secretary	1945 by-election	Peter Griffiths	Conservative Party
Liberal Party	Arthur Holt	Bolton West		1951	Gordon Oakes	Labour Party
Liberal Party	Donald Wade	Huddersfield West	Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party	1950	Ken Lomas	Labour Party
Independent Liberal	Sir John MacLeod	Ross and Cromarty		1950	Alasdair Mackenzie	Liberal Party

Televised results programmes

Both BBC Television and ITV provided live televised coverage of the results and provided commentary.

Notes

^ ^a ^b The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons
^ This summary of opinion poll findings from the last few days of the campaign is given early in the BBC's election night coverage.
^ Conservative total includes Scottish Unionists, Ulster Unionists, and National Liberals.

References

^ Barberis, Peter (September 2007). "Introduction: The 1964 General Election—the 'Not Quite, But' and 'But Only Just' Election". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 284–285. doi:10.1080/13619460600825840. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 144383151 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party. London: Macmillan Education UK. pp. 154–156. doi:10.1007/978-1-349-25305-0. ISBN 978-0-333-56081-5.
^ Fielding 2007, p. 315.
^ 1964: Labour scrapes through, BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 21 May 2018
^ Schaffer, B. B. (7 April 2008). "The British General Election, 1964: A Retrospect". Australian Journal of Politics & History. 11 (1): 7–22. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8497.1965.tb00411.x.
^ Fielding, Steven (September 2007). "Rethinking Labour's 1964 Campaign". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 309–324. doi:10.1080/13619460600825873. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 153901372 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
^ ^a ^b Barberis (2007), p. 286
^ Young 2007, p. 362-364.
^ ^a ^b Young, John W. (September 2007). "International Factors and the 1964 Election". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 353–355. doi:10.1080/13619460600825931. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 154812255.
^ Thorpe, D. R. (1996). Alec Douglas-Home. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. pp. 8, 490 note 21. ISBN 978-1-85619-277-4. Retrieved 26 August 2023 – via Internet Archive. Thorpe cites a PRO file. According to Peter Hennessy in his 19 November 1996 lecture 'Country Values': Alec Douglas - Home, 1963-64 (and chapter 11 of The prime minister: the office and its holders since 1945) Thorpe on 9 October 1996 quoted Macmillan telling the Queen "Alec Home is steel painted as wood".
^ "Sir Alec Douglas-Home | prime minister of United Kingdom | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
^ ^a ^b ^c "History of Sir Alec Douglas-Home - GOV.UK". www.gov.uk. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
^ Schaffer 2008, p. 11.
^ ^a ^b Barberis (2007), p. 288
^ Young 2007, p. 360.
^ ^a ^b ^c Young (2007), p. 361-362
^ ^a ^b Barberis, Peter (September 2007). "The 1964 General Election and the Liberals' False Dawn". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 373–379. doi:10.1080/13619460600825949. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 153819205 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
^ John W. Young, "International Factors and the 1964 Election." Contemporary British History (2007) 21#3 pp 351-371.
^ UK General Election 1964 – Results Round-up on YouTube Retrieved 21 May 2018.
^ ^a ^b Vernon Bogdanor (18 January 2014). "The Spectator book review that brought down Macmillan's government". The Spectator. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
^ Dod's Parliamentary Companion 1966. Epsom, Surrey: Business Directories Limited. 1966. pp. 574–575.
^ Denver, David (1 September 2007). "The 1964 General Election: Explaining Voting Behaviour Then and Now". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 295–307. doi:10.1080/13619460600825857. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 153838758 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
^ Wrigley, Chris (September 2007). "Trade Unions and the 1964 General Election". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 326–328. doi:10.1080/13619460600825899. ISSN 1361-9462. S2CID 153352143 – via Taylor and Francis Online.
^ Barberis 2007, p. 190-191.
^ Wrigley 2007, p. 331.
^ Denver 2007, p. 304.
^ Schaffer (2008), p. 16-19
^ "United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979". Archived from the original on 23 February 2008.
^ "Summary of the election".

v t e Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 2024 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections in England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain

v t e Alec Douglas-Home
Premiership	Ministry 1964 general election
Constituencies	Lanark Kinross and Western Perthshire
Family	Charles Douglas-Home, 13th Earl of Home (father) Elizabeth Douglas-Home (wife) William Douglas Home (brother) David Douglas-Home, 15th Earl of Home (son) Charles Douglas-Home (nephew)
See also	Earl of Home The Hirsel Peerage Act 1963 1963 Kinross and Western Perthshire by-election 1964 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours D'Oliveira affair

v t e Harold Wilson
Premierships	1964–1970 1974–1976
General elections	1964 1966 1970 February 1974 October 1974
Party elections	1960 leadership 1962 deputy leadership 1963 leadership
Shadow Cabinet elections	1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960
Referendum	1975 European Communities membership
Constituencies	Ormskirk Huyton
Resignation Honours	1970 1976
Family	Mary Wilson (wife) Robin Wilson (son) Harold Seddon (Uncle)
Media and popular culture	Mrs. Wilson's Diary Yesterday's Men (TV documentary, 1971) The Lavender List (TV, 2006) Longford (TV, 2006) Made in Dagenham (Film, 2010) The Audience (Play, 2013) The Crown (TV, 2019) Stonehouse (TV, 2023)
Related articles	Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence Beira Patrol D-notice affair Gnomes of Zurich Harold Wilson plot allegations Clockwork Orange Harry letters affair In Place of Strife Wilson Doctrine Bibliography
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