1964 United Kingdom general election

← 1959 15 October 1964 1966 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All630 seats in theHouse of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	27,657,148 77.1% (1.7pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Wilson Alec Douglas-Home Jo Grimond Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 14 February 1963 18 October 1963 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Huyton Kinross and Western Perthshire Orkney and Shetland Last election 258 seats, 43.8% 365 seats, 49.4% 6 seats, 5.9% Seats won 317 304[note 1] 9 Seat change 59 61 3 Popular vote 12,205,808 12,002,642 3,099,283 Percentage 44.1% 43.4% 11.2% Swing 0.3pp 6.0pp 5.3pp
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in§ Results
Composition of theHouse of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Alec Douglas-Home Conservative Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

The1964 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 15 October 1964. It resulted in the Conservatives, led byPrime MinisterAlec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to theLabour Party, led byHarold Wilson; Labour secured aparliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition since the1951 election. At age 47, Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister sinceLord Rosebery in 1894.

Both major parties had changed leadership in 1963. Following the sudden death of Labour leaderHugh Gaitskell early in the year, the party choseHarold Wilson (at the time, thought of as being on the party's centre-left), whileAlec Douglas-Home, at the time theEarl of Home, had taken over as Conservative leader and Prime Minister in October afterHarold Macmillan announced his resignation in the wake of theProfumo affair. Douglas-Home shortly afterward disclaimed his peerage under thePeerage Act 1963 in order to lead the party from the Commons, subsequently standing in theKinross 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 risingunemployment and inflation during therecession of 1960–1961 and the United States' cancellation of theSkybolt program intended to provide Britain with an independentnuclear weapons delivery system after the cancellation of theBlue Streak project. Although Macmillan ended the latter crisis with theNassau Agreement guaranteeing US assistance in thePolaris programme ofsubmarine-launched ballistic missiles, this also indirectly harmed his reputation after French PresidentCharles de Gaulle vetoedBritain's accession bid to theEuropean 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 subsequentleadership election. Although Wilson won this election against his opponentsGeorge Brown andJames Callaghan, he was mistrusted within the party because of hisprevious unsuccessful leadership challenge to Gaitskell in 1960.^[2] The party also suffered from internal policy disputes overunilateral nuclear disarmament andClause IV of its constitution, which committed it tonationalisation 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 avote 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". TheLiberal 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 asnap election in1966.

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 the1964 London local elections. Conservative leaders became more optimistic about their chances after winning threeby-elections in Winchester,Bury St. Edmunds, andDevizes. The election campaign formally began on 25 September 1964 when Douglas-Home saw the Queen and asked for adissolution 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. WhileGeorge Brown, deputy leader of the Labour Party, toured the country making energetic speeches (and the occasionalgaffe),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 historianAndrew Thorpe called "the basis of revisionism given a significant twist in the direction of Wilsonian planning, and a moredirigiste approach to industrial modernization."^[2]Labour's manifestoLet's Go with Labour for New Britain reflected Wilson's belief thatsocial justice andtechnological progress would transform industry to create aplanned economy capable of providingfull employment, rapideconomic growth, favourablebalance of trade, and control ofinflation.^{[citation needed]} Party leaders also decided that they had lost the previous election because of their failure to appeal to thegrowing 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 theprices and incomes policy to controlinflation. Ineducation it soughtcomprehensivisation ofsecondary education and a higherschool-leaving age, while inimmigration it sought bothimmigration 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 andalliances, increased British assertiveness at the United Nations, and a build-up of the conventional components of theBritish Armed Forces, but did not promiseunilateral nuclear disarmament as some left-wing members of the party desired.^[2][7] While early campaigning suggested that a Labour government would abandon thePolaris 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 contractorFerranti, theAden Emergency,Cypriot intercommunal violence, the escalation of theVietnam War, arms sales toapartheidSouth Africa, and a contract to constructnaval frigates forFrancoist 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 asEnoch Powell andIain Macleod – harmed the Conservative Party in the election. Even many Conservatives condemned Douglas-Home for theResale Prices Act 1964 abolishingresale 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 manifestoProsperity with a Purpose pledged closer relations with theAtlantic world and theCommonwealth of Nations, development ofnuclear power, industrial retraining, increased capital investment in British industry, and continued development of theBAC TSR-2 supersonic aircraft project.^[14][15] The Conservative campaign emphasised the party's diplomatic successes, such as the Nassau Agreement, thePartial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the defence ofMalaysia in theBorneo Confrontation.^[9] Although the Conservatives made limited appeals to new Caribbean, African, and South Asian immigrants by printing campaign literature inHindi andUrdu, it defended theCommonwealth Immigrants Act 1962 restricting immigration ofCommonwealth citizens.^[16]

As in previous elections since its decline, the Liberal Party underJo Grimond's leadership positioned itself as a non-socialist,individualist alternative to Labour. The two key domestic policy pledges in its manifestoThink for Yourself, Vote Liberal were healthcare reform anddevolution forScotland andWales.^[14] The Liberals also were distinguished by their internationalist andpro-European foreign policy, becoming the first major party to endorseBritish 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 the1962 Orpington by-election, its first in a seat outside of the "Celtic fringe" ofWales,Scotland, and theWest 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 inBirmingham. 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 chronicbalance 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 asBBC1'sPanorama,Associated-Rediffusion'sThis Week, andGranada Television'sWorld in Action, as well as political satire inspired by the success ofThat Was the Week That Was.^[7] The election night was broadcast live byBBC Television, presented for the fifth and final time byRichard Dimbleby, withRobin Day,Ian Trethowan,Cliff Michelmore andDavid Butler co-presenting.^[19]

• 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]}

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 the1929 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 becamePrime Minister, replacing Douglas-Home; Labour's four-seat majority was not sustainable for a full Parliament, and Wilson ultimately called anothergeneral 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 backbenchersWoodrow Wyatt andDesmond 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 avoidvote 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 leaderJo Grimond did not want to support a Conservative minority government.

Douglas-Home toldD. R. Thorpe that the most important reason for the Conservative loss wasIain Macleod's"The Tory Leadership" article, in which the former cabinet minister claimed that anEtonian "magic circle" conspiracy had led to him becoming prime minister.^[20] British Ambassador to the United StatesDavid 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 justRab [Butler] keeping his mouth shut for once."^[16]David Butler andDonald E. Stokes's influential 1969British Election Study reportPolitical 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 theUniversity of Texas and theUniversity of Essex emphasizing the role ofvalence 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 thepost-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 withtrade unions through theConservative Trade Union Councils at the party level and the newNational Economic Development Council at the governmental level; however, their outreach was weakened by theRookes v Barnard decision allowing employers to collectpunitive 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 theprofessional–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 incentral andsouthern 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 thecontest in Smethwick, in which an explicitly racist campaign by Conservative candidatePeter Griffiths stoking anxieties around deindustrialisation and a shortage of council housing by targeting immigrants unseated Shadow Foreign SecretaryPatrick Gordon Walker.^[2][16][27]

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• 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 †.

BothBBC Television andITV provided live televised coverage of the results and provided commentary.

• List of MPs elected in the 1964 United Kingdom general election
• Smethwick in the 1964 general election
• 1964 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1964 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
• 1964 United Kingdom general election in England

• Prosperity With a Purpose, 1964 Conservative Party manifesto
• The New Britain, 1964 Labour Party manifesto
• Think for Yourself, 1964 Liberal Party manifesto

• 1964 United Kingdom general election
• General elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
• 1964 elections in the United Kingdom
• October 1964 in the United Kingdom
• Alec Douglas-Home
• Harold Wilson
• History of the Labour Party (UK)

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