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All635 seats in theHouse of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opinion polls | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 31,321,982 78.8% (  6.8pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Colours denote the winning party—as shown in§ Results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Composition of theHouse of Commons after the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TheFebruary 1974 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 28 February 1974. TheLabour Party, led by formerPrime MinisterHarold Wilson, gained 14 seats (301 total) but was seventeen short of an overall majority. TheConservative Party, led by Prime MinisterEdward Heath, lost 28 seats (though it polled a higher share of the vote than Labour). That resulted in ahung parliament, the first since1929. Heath sought a coalition with theLiberals, but the two parties failed to come to an agreement and so Wilson became prime minister for a second time, his first with a minority government. Wilson called another early election in September,which was held in October and resulted in a Labour majority. The February election was also the first general election to be held with the United Kingdom as a member state of theEuropean Communities (EC), which was widely known as the "Common Market".
Its results sawNorthern Ireland diverging heavily from the rest of the United Kingdom, with all twelve candidates elected being from local parties (eleven of them representing unionist parties) after the decision of theUlster Unionists to withdraw support from the Conservative Party in protest over theSunningdale Agreement. TheScottish National Party achieved significant success at the election by increasing its share of the popular vote in Scotland from 11% to 22%, and its number of MPs from one to seven.Plaid Cymru also succeeded for the first time in getting candidates elected at a general election inWales (its sole previous seat was won ata by-election in 1966).
Although Heath's incumbent Conservative government polled the most votes by a small margin, the Conservatives were overtaken in terms of seats by Wilson's Labour Party because of a more efficiently distributed Labour vote. Ultimately, the decision by the seven Ulster Unionist MPs not to take the Conservativewhip proved decisive in giving Labour a slim plurality of seats. The other four unionists elected were hardliners who were not affiliated with the UUP.
Both the Labour and the Conservative parties lost a considerable share of the popular vote, largely to theLiberal Party underJeremy Thorpe's leadership, which polled two-and-a-half times its share of the vote in the previous election. However, even with over 6,000,000 votes, only 14 Liberal MPs were elected. There had been some media projections that the Liberals could take twice as many seats.[1]
Given that it was not obvious who could command the support of the House, Heath did not resign immediately as prime minister. However, he knew that even if he could persuade all eleven of Northern Ireland's unionist MPs to support a Conservative government, at least on confidence matters, over one led by Wilson, he would still need the support of the Liberals to have a workable majority. Heath, therefore, started negotiations with Thorpe to form acoalition government. Thorpe, never enthusiastic about supporting the Conservatives, demanded major electoral reforms in exchange for such an agreement. Unwilling to accept such terms, Heath resigned, and Wilsonreturned for his second stint asPrime Minister.
The election night was covered live on the BBC and was presented byAlastair Burnet,David Butler,Robert McKenzie andRobin Day.[1][2]
Prominent members of Parliament who retired or were defeated at the election includedGordon Campbell,Bernadette McAliskey,Enoch Powell,Richard Crossman,Tom Driberg andPatrick Gordon Walker. It was the first of twoUnited Kingdom general elections held that year, the first to take place after theUnited Kingdom became a member of theEuropean Communities on 1 January 1973, and the first since1929not to produce an overall majority in theHouse of Commons for the party with the most votes. This was also the first time since 1910 that two general elections were held in the same year.
On 20 October 1973, a group of Arab nations led by KingFaisal of Saudi Arabia imposed a total oil embargo on the United States to punish the Americans for a perceived pro-Israel bias during theOctober war, which led to the so-called "oil shock" that plunged the world into the steepest recession since the Great Depression.[3] The United Kingdom was not subject to the embargo, but the embargo led to the price of oil quadrupling worldwide in late 1973 as the shortage of oil in the United States made American consumers willing to pay higher oil prices, which in turn led to higher worldwide oil prices including in Britain as oil producers would not ship oil to nations that would not pay the same prices relative to American consumers.[4] Oil was discovered in the North Sea in 1969, but only started to be pumped in 1975, making Britain in 1973–1974 almost entirely dependent upon imported oil.[5] At the time, it was believed that oil from the North Sea would be extracted only by the end of the 1970s..[6] The end of the "long summer" of post-war prosperity caused an immense psychological shock in the Western nations, leading theFinancial Times to run a famous headline in December 1973 reading: "The Future Will Be Subject to Delay".[7]
In December 1973 Heath warned in a series of speeches that because of the "oil shock" that the United Kingdom was headed into a recession and the British people should expect economic austerity.[8] The need to avoid importing the now considerably more expensive oil to help manage the balance-of-payments led the Heath government to turn towards coal (which Britain was self-sufficient in) as a substitute source of energy, which gave the coal miners union immense leverage over the government to press for higher wages for the coal miners.[9] Prior to the oil shock, the government could always threaten to convert electricity plants powered by coal to oil, a threat that could no longer be credibly made. In the years prior to the "oil shock", there had been a tendency to switch from coal to oil to power electricity plants, a policy that reduced the need for coal and hence coal miners.[6] Heath offered the coal miners a 7% wage increase, which was rejected as insufficient by the miners who wanted a 35% wage increase.[10] In late 1973-early 1974, Heath held a series of inconclusive meetings withJoe Gormley, the president of theNational Union of Mineworkers.[11] Several times, Heath threatened to call a snap election with the aim of seeking a mandate to oppose the demands of Gormley and the other union leaders, a tactic that was considered to be counterproductive by the union leaders.[12] In a bid to save electricity, in December 1973 the Heath government passed a bill imposing a three-day work week that came into effect on 1 January 1974, which greatly contributed to the crisis atmosphere.[13] Heath decided in early 1974 to call a snap election to provide him with the mandate to oppose the NUM.[6] In the early 1970s, the Liberals underJeremy Thorpe had won 5 by-elections and public opinion polls showed that the Liberals would win at least 20% of the popular vote in a general election.[14] Heath calculated that under the first-the-post system that the Liberals would not be able to translate their support into winning many seats, but that the Liberals would draw away many Labour voters disenchanted withHarold Wilson.[14]
On Thursday 7 February, it was announced that Prime MinisterEdward Heath had asked QueenElizabeth II, who was then inNew Zealand for the1974 British Commonwealth Games, to dissolve Parliament for a general election to take place on 28 February. Because of the Queen's being abroad, thedissolution of parliament was required to be promulgated byCounsellors of State, in this caseQueen Elizabeth The Queen Mother andPrincess Margaret, on her express instructions.[15] The severe economic circumstances in which the election was held prompted bothThe Sun and theDaily Mirror to characterise it as a "crisis election".[16] Heath had been elected on a platform in 1970 that in some ways anticipated the policies later pursued by Margaret Thatcher as he called for less state involvement in the economy, but during his time in office he performed a series of "u-turns" that instead led to greater state involvement in the British economy, which had damaged his reputation.[17] Heath by his various "u-turns" performed between 1970 and 1974 acquired the image of a leader who reacted to events instead of being a leader who shaped events, which contributed in part to his defeat in 1974.[17] A number of ministers in Heath's government, most notablyWilliam Whitelaw, were opposed to calling an election in early 1974 and would preferred to wait until later in 1974 or even 1975 out of the hope the economy might be in better shape.[17] With the notable exception of the question of British membership in theEuropean Economic Community as the European Union was then called, foreign policy was not a factor in the election with the attention being paid mainly to domestic issues.[18]
On 10 February, theNational Union of Mineworkers, as expected, went on strike, but it was more of a low-key affair than the high-profileclashes of 1972, with no violence and only six men on each picket line.Jim Prior later wrote that the miners had been "as quiet and well-behaved as mice".[16] TheThree-Day Week continued throughout the election, although Heath allowed the late-night television curfew to be lifted to allow more coverage of the campaign. The low profile of the miners' strike allowed worries over inflation to dominate the election. On 15 February, it was announced that theRetail Price Index showed a 20% increase in prices over the previous year.[16]
On 21 February, the Pay Board released a report on miners' pay, which unexpectedly revealed that they were paid less than other manufacturing workers, contrary to the claims of theNational Coal Board. That came as a severe blow to the Conservative position, and led to accusations that the National Coal Board did not understand its own pay system and that the strike was unnecessary.[19] Further bad news for Heath and his party came four days later, with the latest trade figures showing that thecurrent account deficit for the previous month had been £383,000,000, the worst in recorded history. Heath claimed the figures confirmed "the gravity of the situation" and the need for a new mandate, which promptedRoy Jenkins to quip: "He [Heath] presumably thinks a still worse result would have given him a still stronger claim".[16]
One of the most unexpected and explosive events of the campaign was when the outspoken Conservative MPEnoch Powell, who had already announced that he could not stand for re-election on the Conservative manifesto, urged people to vote against Heath for bringing about UK membership of theEuropean Communities. In a speech inBirmingham on 23 February 1974, Powell claimed the main issue in the campaign was whether Britain was to "remain a democratic nation ... or whether it will become one province in a new Europe super-state"; he said it was people's "national duty" to oppose those who had deprived Parliament of "its sole right to make the laws and impose the taxes of the country".[16] The speech promptedThe Sun to run the headline "Enoch puts the boot in". A few days later, he said he hoped for victory by "the party which is committed to a fundamental renegotiation of theTreaty of Brussels and to submitting to the British People ... the outcome of that renegotiation". Those were the explicit manifesto promises of the Labour Party.[16]
A further unforeseen blow to the Conservative campaign came on 26 February whenCampbell Adamson, Director-General of theConfederation of British Industry (CBI), was reported to have called for the repeal of the Heath Government'sIndustrial Relations Act and to have said that the Act had "sullied every relationship between employers and unions at national level". Adamson had been closely involved with the Downing Street talks over the mining dispute. Although Heath emphasised that Adamson was voicing a personal opinion and that his views did not express the official position of the CBI, he after the election acknowledged that the intervention had a negative impact on the Conservative campaign.[20] Labour, meanwhile, cited Adamson's comments as proving the need "for everything they (had)... been urging on the Government".[21]
Heath addressed the country on television on the evening of 7 February, and asked:
Do you want a strong Government which has clear authority for the future to take decisions which will be needed? Do you want Parliament and the elected Government to continue to fight strenuously against inflation? Or do you want them to abandon the struggle against rising prices under pressure from one particularly powerful group of workers ... This time of strife has got to stop. Only you can stop it. It's time for you to speak—with your vote. It's time for your voice to be heard—the voice of the moderate and reasonable people of Britain: the voice of the majority. It's time for you to say to the extremists, the militants, and the plain and simply misguided: we've had enough. There's a lot to be done. For heaven's sake, let's get on with it.[16]
The Conservative campaign was, thus, encapsulated by the now-famous phrase "Who governs Britain?"
The party's manifesto, which was largely written by the future ChancellorNigel Lawson, was entitledFirm Action for a Fair Britain and characterised by the historianDominic Sandbrook as "strident rhetoric".[16] It claimed the Labour opposition had been taken over by "a small group of power-hungry trade union leaders", who were "committed to a left-wing programme more dangerous and more extreme than ever before in its history". It went on to assert that a Labour victory would be a "major national disaster". Sandbrook criticised the Conservative manifesto as "very vague and woolly" and lacking in "detailed policies or [a] sense of direction."[16]
Edward Heath played a dominant and crucial role in the campaign. In public, he appeared calm and in control. David Watt, in theFinancial Times, called him "statesmanlike" and "relaxed". In his party's final broadcast of the campaign he said: "I'll do all that I can for this country ... We've started a job together. With your will, we shall go on and finish the job".[16]
One Conservative political broadcast attracted controversy for its ferocity. In the film the narrator warned that Labour would confiscate "your bank account, your mortgage and your wage packet" while pictures ofHarold Wilson andJames Callaghan dissolved into those ofMichael Foot andTony Benn. It went on to allege that Labour would not have to move much further to the left before "you could find yourself not even owning your own home".[16] Wilson was reportedly furious, andLord Carrington, the Secretary of State for Energy, made a formal apology.[16]
The Labour manifesto,Let us work together, consisted of only ten pages only, the shortest since1955. It had been greatly influenced by the economistStuart Holland and Shadow Industry SecretaryTony Benn. In it, Labour promised "a fundamental and irreversible shift in the balance of power and wealth in favour of working people and their families". It advocated planning agreements with industry and the creation of aNational Enterprise Board. That section attracted criticism from some figures within the party. For example,Anthony Crosland privately called the programme "half-baked" and "idiotic".The manifesto also committed the party to renegotiating the terms of Britain's entry into theEuropean Economic Community and to holding a national referendum on the issue.[16]
The Labour campaign presented the party's leadership as competent negotiators, who would restore peace with the unions. Unlike in previous elections, Wilson took something of a back seat and allowedJames Callaghan,Denis Healey andShirley Williams to play equal, if not greater, roles in the campaign. In the final broadcast of the campaign, a series of leading figures claimed Labour could put Britain "on the road to recovery". In the film, Wilson asserted: "Trades unionists are people. Employers are people. We can't go on setting one against the other except at the cost of damage to the nation itself".[16]
TheLiberal Party had undergone a revival under the leadership ofJeremy Thorpe by winning a string of by-elections in 1972 and 1973. It had begun to appeal to disaffected Conservative voters and continued to do so throughout the campaign. In a number of constituencies in England whose population was predominantly middle class that were held by Conservative MPs, the Liberals attracted significant support.[14] Thorpe came across as young and charismatic, often attempting to appear above the two-party fray. The manifesto,You can Change the Face of Britain, promised voting reform and devolution, but Sandbrook described its economic policy as "impossibly vague".[16] The Liberals began to contest more seats, standing in 517 constituencies across the country.[22] In the 1974 election, the Liberals seemed to have drawn away more voters from the Conservatives than Labour.[14]
During the election, theScottish National Party campaigned widely on the political slogan "It's Scotland's oil". It was argued that the discovery ofNorth Sea oil off the coast ofScotland and the revenue that it created would not benefit Scotland to any significant degree while it remained part of the United Kingdom.[23][24]
The historianDominic Sandbrook describes the "level of partisanship" amongst the national newspapers during the election as "unprecedented" in post-war Britain, with most of the media prejudiced in favour of Heath and the Conservatives. TheDaily Mirror was one of the few national newspapers to support Labour, with many others urging their readers to re-elect Heath. In the right-wing media, there was fierce condemnation of Wilson and his party.The Sun, which had supported Labour in 1970, claimed a Labour victory would result in "galloping inflation", and an editorial inThe Daily Telegraph said a Labour government would be "complete ruin public and private" and condemned what it saw as Wilson's "craven subservience to trade union power". TheEvening Standard published a piece byKingsley Amis calling the Labour politicianTony Benn, who was to be appointedSecretary of State for Industry after the election, "the most dangerous man in Britain", and in theDaily Express, the cartoonist Cummings depicted the miners' leaderJoe Gormley, Wilson and other Labour figures as French revolutionariesguillotining Heath.The Guardian, in contrast, chose to support no party openly. Its columnistPeter Jenkins claimed the last ten years had proved that "neither party" had the ability to deal with the country's problems.[16]
It was the first general election in the United Kingdom to be held during an economic crisis since the1931 general election, which had been held in the depths of theGreat Depression.[25]
Throughout the campaign 25 of the 26 opinion polls had a Conservative lead and one even by 9%. Of the six polls on election day (28 February), two had a 2% lead, two a 4% lead, one a 3% lead and one a 5% lead.[26]
As the Queen was in New Zealand on 7 February, the Prime Minister notified her of his intentions via telegram, rather than by the usual protocol of visitingBuckingham Palace. The key dates were as follows:
| Friday 8 February | Dissolution of the45th Parliament and official beginning of campaign |
| Monday 18 February | Last day to file nomination papers; 2,135 candidates enter to contest 635 seats |
| Wednesday 27 February | Campaigning officially ends |
| Thursday 28 February | Polling day |
| Friday 1 March | Election results in ahung parliament with Labour narrowly ahead as the largest party but short of a majority |
| Sunday 3 March | Edward Heath begins meetings with Liberal Party leaderJeremy Thorpe to discuss the terms of a potential coalition |
| Monday 4 March | Conservative Prime MinisterEdward Heath resigns shortly after the Liberals reject his coalition terms, which allowsHarold Wilson to return to power as leader of a Labourminority government |
| Wednesday 6 March | 46th Parliament assembles |
| Tuesday 12 March | State Opening of Parliament |
The election was fought on new constituency boundaries with five more seats added to the 630 used in 1970. This led to many seats changing hands on the new notional boundaries.Notional election results from the 1970 general election were calculated on behalf of the BBC byMichael Steed to compare constituency results with those of February 1974.
For the first time since1929, the two largest political parties had received less than a combined share of 80% of the vote, and the Liberals had also won more than 10% of the vote. The Liberals under Thorpe made their strongest showing since the 1929 election, which reflected a disenchantment with both Labour and the Conservatives by sections of the public.[17] The Liberals won six million votes, but because of the first-past-the-post system won only 14 seats.[14] After the election, there were talks for a Conservative-Liberal coalition, which fell apart, leading for the Queen to ask Wilson to form a minority Labour government.[17] The main stumbling block in the Heath-Thorpe talks were the latter's demand for the end of the first-past-the-post electoral system, which did not favor the Liberals.[27] Even if the Liberals and the Conservatives had formed a coalition, the government would have been 14 seats short of a majority.[28] Heath had wanted to stay on as prime minister and intended to govern as if he had a majority by threatening another general election in the event of a no-confidence vote.[29] Heath's plans led to serious questions about the constitutional probity about this course if Heath should stay on and ask the Queen for another election if his government should be defeated in the Commons.[29] The historian SirJohn Wheeler-Bennett when asked for his opinion advised the courtierMartin Charteris by quoting Arthur Balfour "no constitution can subside on a diet of dissolutions", which was understood to mean that an attempt should be made to form a government before dissolving the House of Commons for another election just fresh after an election.[29] Wheeler-Bennett was a Conservative, but he argued Heath had been given the election he had asked for and to allow him to continue as the prime minister even if he formed a coalition with the Liberals would lead to serious problems of democratic legitimacy.[29]
The Conservatives or any otherEngland-based political party has never won a single seat fromNorthern Ireland since the defeat of all sittingNorthern Irish Conservative MPs in this election, due to the popular outrage against the 1972 prorogation of theParliament of Northern Ireland & theSuningdale Agreement. Since then, all Northern Irish MPs have belonged tolocal political outfits.
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| Candidates | Votes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Leader | Stood | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | |
| Conservative | Edward Heath | 623 | 297[note 1] | 5 | 42 | −37 | 46.8 | 37.9 | 11,872,180 | −8.5 | |
| Labour | Harold Wilson | 623[a] | 301[b] | 34 | 14 | +20[c] | 47.4[d] | 37.2[e] | 11,645,616[f] | −5.9[g] | |
| Liberal | Jeremy Thorpe | 517 | 14 | 8 | 0 | +8 | 2.2 | 19.3 | 6,059,519 | +11.8 | |
| SNP | William Wolfe | 70 | 7 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 1.1 | 2.0 | 633,180 | +0.9 | |
| UUP | Harry West | 7 | 7 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 232,103 | N/A | |
| Plaid Cymru | Gwynfor Evans | 36 | 2 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 171,374 | −0.1 | |
| SDLP | Gerry Fitt | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 160,137 | N/A | |
| Pro-Assembly Unionist | Brian Faulkner | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 94,301 | N/A | ||
| National Front | John Tyndall | 54 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 76,865 | +0.1 | ||
| Vanguard | William Craig | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 75,944 | N/A | |
| DUP | Ian Paisley | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 58,656 | +0.1 | |
| Independent Liberal | N/A | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 38,437 | +0.2 | ||
| Communist | John Gollan | 44 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 32,743 | 0.0 | ||
| Independent Labour | N/A | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 29,892 | 0.0 | |
| Alliance | Oliver Napier | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 22,660 | N/A | ||
| Independent | N/A | 43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 18,180 | 0.0 | ||
| Unity | N/A | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | −2 | 0.0 | 17,593 | −0.4 | ||
| Ind. Socialist | N/A | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 17,300 | N/A | ||
| NI Labour | Alan Carr | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 17,284 | N/A | ||
| Republican Clubs | Tomás Mac Giolla | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 15,152 | N/A | ||
| Democratic Labour | Dick Taverne | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 0.0 | 14,780 | N/A | ||
| Ind. Conservative | N/A | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 11,451 | −0.1 | ||
| Ind. Republican | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 5,662 | N/A | ||
| PEOPLE | Tony Whittaker | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 4,576 | N/A | ||
| Workers Revolutionary | Gerry Healy | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 4,191 | N/A | ||
| Social Democracy | Dick Taverne | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 2,646 | N/A | ||
| Independent Democratic | John Creasey | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,976 | N/A | ||
| Marxist-Leninist (England) | John Buckle | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,419 | N/A | ||
| National Independence | John Davis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,373 | N/A | ||
| National Democratic | David Brown | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,161 | −0.1 | ||
| Ind. Labour Party | Emrys Thomas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 991 | 0.0 | ||
| Mebyon Kernow | Richard Jenkin | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 850 | 0.0 | ||
| International Marxist | N/A | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 716 | N/A | ||
| British Movement | Colin Jordan | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 711 | 0.0 | ||
| Ind. Social Democrat | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 661 | N/A | ||
| Wessex Regionalist | Viscount Weymouth | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 521 | N/A | ||
| Independent Democrat | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 386 | N/A | ||
| More Prosperous Britain | Tom Keen and Harold Smith | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 234 | N/A | ||
| National | N/A | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 229 | N/A | ||
| John Hampden New Freedom | Frank Hansford-Miller | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 203 | N/A | ||
| Government's new majority | −33 |
| Total votes cast | 31,321,982 |
| Turnout | 78.8% |
| Conservative | 37.90% | |||
| Labour | 37.18% | |||
| Liberal | 19.35% | |||
| SNP | 2.02% | |||
| Others | 3.55% | |||
| Labour | 47.40% | |||
| Conservative | 46.77% | |||
| Liberal | 2.20% | |||
| SNP | 1.10% | |||
| Others | 2.52% | |||
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