October 1974 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held on the 10 October 1974 to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party won the election with a very small majority of 3 seats and Harold Wilson stayed as Prime Minister.

October 1974 United Kingdom general election

10 October 1974
All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	72.8%, 6.0%
First party Second party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Party Labour Conservative Leader's seat Huyton Sidcup Last election 301 seats, 37.2% 297 seats, 37.9% Seats won 319 277 Seat change 18 20 Popular vote 11,457,079 10,462,565 Percentage 39.2% 35.8% Swing 2.0% 2.1%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jeremy Thorpe William Wolfe Party Liberal SNP Leader's seat North Devon Stood in West Lothian (lost) Last election 14 seats, 19.3% 7 seats, 2.0% Seats won 13 11 Seat change 1 4 Popular vote 5,346,704 839,617 Percentage 18.3% 2.9% Swing 1.0% 0.9%
Colours show the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

This was the second general election to happen in 1974. The last election in February ended in a hung parliament and no parties wanted to start a coalition government. This meant Labour had to start a minority government. This is why a second election was held, because governments are very hard to run if they do not have a majority.