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1964 United Kingdom general election in England

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The 1964 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 15 October 1964 to elect 630 members of the House of Commons, of which 511 constituencies were in England.

1964 United Kingdom general election in England
← 1959 15 October 1964 1966 →
← outgoing memberselected members →
All 511 English seats in the House of Commons
256 seats needed for English majority
  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 193 seats, 43.6% 315 seats, 50.0% 3 seats, 6.3%
Seats won 246 262 3
Seat change Increase53 Decrease53 Steady
Percentage 43.5% 44.1% 12.1%
Swing Decrease0.1% Decrease5.9% Increase5.8%

In this election, although the incumbent Conservative government led by Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home was ousted by the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, the Conservatives narrowly won a majority of seats in England. In the post-war era, this remains the one of the two elections (the other being the 1950 election) where the party winning a majority in the House of Commons not winning a plurality of seats in England- rather, the party which lost the general election won a majority of seats in England.

Result Table

Party Seats won Net change in seats Total votes (in millions) Voteshare Change in voteshare
Conservative 262 Decrease53 10.11 44.1% Decrease5.9%
Labour 246 Increase53 9.98 43.5% Decrease0.1%
Liberal 3 Steady 2.78 12.1% Increase5.8%
Parliament seats
Conservative   51.27%
Labour   48.14%
Liberal   0.58%

References

  • Barberis, Peter (September 2007). "Introduction: The 1964 General Election—the 'Not Quite, But' and 'But Only Just' Election". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 284–285.
  • 1964: Labour scrapes through, BBC News, 5 April 2005
  • Schaffer, B. B. (7 April 2008). "The British General Election, 1964: A Retrospect". Australian Journal of Politics & History. 11 (1): 7–22.
  • Denver, David (1 September 2007). "The 1964 General Election: Explaining Voting Behaviour Then and Now". Contemporary British History. 21 (3): 295–307.
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