February 1974 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held on 28 February 1974 to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The election ended in a hung parliament as no party had a majority. Nobody agreed to start a coalition, so Labour had to start a minority government (as they had won the most seats), and Harold Wilson became Prime Minister.

February 1974 United Kingdom general election

28 February 1974
All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	78.8%, 6.8%
First party Second party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Party Labour Conservative Leader's seat Huyton Sidcup Last election 288 seats, 43.1% 330 seats, 46.4% Seats before 287 325 Seats won 301 297 Seat change 14 28 Popular vote 11,645,616 11,872,180 Percentage 37.2% 37.9% Swing 5.9% 8.5%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jeremy Thorpe William Wolfe Party Liberal SNP Leader's seat North Devon Stood in West Lothian (lost) Last election 6 seats, 7.5% 1 seat, 1.1% Seats before 11 2 Seats won 14 7 Seat change 3 5 Popular vote 6,059,519 633,180 Percentage 19.3% 2.0% Swing 11.8% 0.9%
Colours show the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Edward Heath Conservative Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

It is very hard to run a government if the party has no majority, and so the House of Commons agreed to hold another general election in October. This was done so that a party could win a majority.

References

• Butler, David; Kavanagh, Dennis (1974), The British General Election of February 1974, Macmillan, ISBN 0333172973
• Sandbrook, Dominic (2010), State of Emergency: The Way We Were: Britain, 1970–1974, Allen Lane, ISBN 9781846140310
• Taylor, Andrew (1984), The Politics of the Yorkshire Miners, London: Croom Helm, ISBN 0-7099-2447-X