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1966 United Kingdom general election

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Field	Value
election_name	1966 United Kingdom general election
country	United Kingdom
type	parliamentary
ongoing	no
previous_election	1964 United Kingdom general election
previous_year	1964
outgoing_members	List of MPs elected in the 1964 United Kingdom general election
next_election	1970 United Kingdom general election
next_year	1970
elected_members	List of MPs elected in the 1966 United Kingdom general election
seats_for_election	All 630 seats in the House of Commons
majority_seats	316
elected_mps	List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1966
election_date	31 March 1966
turnout	27,264,747
75.8% (1.3 pp)
<!-- Labour -->	image1
leader1	Harold Wilson
leader_since1	[14 February 1963](1963-labour-party-leadership-election-uk)
party1	Labour Party (UK)
leaders_seat1	Huyton
last_election1	317 seats, 44.1%
seats1	364
seat_change1	47
popular_vote1	13,096,951
percentage1	48.0%
swing1	3.9 pp
<!-- Conservative -->	image2
leader2	Edward Heath
leader_since2	[28 July 1965](1965-conservative-party-leadership-election)
party2	Conservative Party (UK)
leaders_seat2	Bexley
last_election2	304 seats, 43.4%
seats2	253
seat_change2	51
popular_vote2	11,418,433
percentage2	41.9%
swing2	1.5 pp
<!-- Liberal -->	image3
leader3	Jo Grimond
leader_since3	5 November 1956
party3	Liberal Party (UK)
leaders_seat3	Orkney and Shetland
last_election3	9 seats, 11.2%
seats3	12
seat_change3	3
popular_vote3	2,327,533
percentage3	8.5%
swing3	2.7 pp
map_image	UK General Election, 1966 (2).svg
map_size	200px
map_caption	Colours denote the winning party—as shown in
map2_image	File:1966 UK GE Westminster diagram.svg
map2_caption	Composition of the House of Commons after the election
title	Prime Minister
posttitle	Prime Minister after election
before_election	Harold Wilson
before_party	Labour Party (UK)
after_election	Harold Wilson
after_party	Labour Party (UK)
opinion_polls	Opinion polling for the 1966 United Kingdom general election

75.8% (1.3 pp)

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

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 is also noted for the Labour Party achieving its third-highest vote-share (48%) and second largest total number of votes in its 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. Alastair Burnet hosted ITN's coverage.

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 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 47 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 in 1997 and 2001, and again under Keir Starmer in 2024, Labour have never since matched the 48% of the popular vote they won in 1966.

plus/minus = 0.0
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Turnout	75.8%

Votes summary

Note

Headline swing: 2.7% to Labour

Seats summary

Incumbents defeated

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

Televised declarations

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

Winning party 1964	Constituency result 1966 by party	Winning party 1966	Lib	PC
22,683	19,768			hold
12,965	21,067			hold
21,466	14,881			hold
13,257	19,237			hold
9,000	18,409			hold
18,613	22,189	4,869		gain
15,631	6,127	16,797		hold
14,550	18,440		508	gain
13,829	18,406		5,117	hold
18,157	26,803	3,851	441	recovery
20,182	41,132		585	hold
38,371	40,013	7,587		gain
17,931	20,720			hold
26,377	24,044	4,405		hold
14,031	14,638	2,063		gain
13,956	6,008	15,151		gain
22,359	19,216	5,460		hold
25,654	28,619			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.

Notes

References

Thorpe, Andrew. (1997). "A History of the British Labour Party". Macmillan Education UK.
(5 April 2005). "1966: Wilson gains mandate". BBC News.
(29 March 2006). "Election replay 1966". BBC News.
"1966 General Election". BBC Parliament.
Joseph, Michael. (1980). "25 Years on ITV". Independent Television Books Ltd.

Info: Wikipedia Source

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