A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 8 October 1959. The Conservative Party under the leadership of incumbent prime minister Harold Macmillan won a victory with a majority of 100 seats. This was their third election victory in a row.

The Conservatives won the largest number of votes in Scotland, but narrowly failed to win the most seats in that country. They have not made either achievement ever since. Both Jeremy Thorpe, a future Liberal leader, and Margaret Thatcher, a future Conservative leader and eventually Prime Minister, first entered the House of Commons following this election.

Background Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, Anthony Eden, the Conservative Prime Minister, became unpopular. He resigned early in 1957, and was succeeded by Chancellor of the Exchequer Harold Macmillan. At that point, the Labour Party, whose leader Hugh Gaitskell had succeeded Clement Attlee following the 1955 general election, enjoyed large leads in opinion polls over the Conservative Party, and it looked as if Labour would win.

The Liberal Party also had a new leader, Jo Grimond, so all three parties contested the election with a new leader at the helm.

However, the Conservatives enjoyed an upturn in fortunes as the economy quickly recovered from the Recession of 1958 under Macmillan's leadership, and his personal approval ratings remained high. At the same time, the Labour Party's popularity suffered due to the rise of industrial disputes in the 1950s and controversies over the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. By September 1958, the Conservatives had moved ahead of Labour in the opinion polls. Parliament was dissolved on 18 September 1959.

Campaign All the three main parties had changed leadership since the previous election. The Conservatives fought under the slogan "Life is better with the Conservatives, don't let Labour ruin it" and were boosted by a pre-election economic boom. Macmillan very effectively "summed up" the mood of the British public when he said that most of the people had "never had it so good". Macmillan was very popular, and was described as a politician of the centre ground; in the 1930s he had represented a constituency in northern England (Stockton-on-Tees), which had experienced large-scale unemployment and poverty during the Great Depression. The first week of polling put the Conservatives ahead of Labour by over 5%, but this narrowed as the campaign continued. The Labour Party fought a generally effective campaign, with television broadcasts masterminded by Tony Benn under the umbrella of their manifesto entitled Britain Belongs to You, which accused the Conservatives of complacency over the growing gap between rich and poor. Labour's manifesto pledged to reverse reductions in welfare benefits, pensions, and National Health Service expenditure; renationalize the steel industry and road haulage; reform secondary education; expand consumer protections; and create the Welsh Office. It notably promised not to fully nationalise industries which were performing efficiently and profitably, pivoting away from its earlier emphasis on socialism towards welfare capitalism. Hugh Gaitskell made a mistake in declaring that a Labour government would not raise taxes if it came to power—even though the Labour manifesto contained pledges to increase spending; especially to increase pensions. Although Gaitskell argued revenue would be provided by economic growth, this led some voters to doubt Labour's spending plans, and is cited as a key reason for their defeat.

Aftermath Early on during election night, it became clear that the Conservative Party had been returned to government with an increased majority, performing better than it had been expected to. For the fourth general election in a row, the Conservatives increased their number of seats, despite experiencing a slight decrease in their share of the vote. However, there were swings to Labour in parts of north-west England, and in Scotland; where Scottish Labour had overtaken the Conservative-aligned Unionist Party as the largest single party in terms of seats, despite winning a slightly smaller share of the vote, thanks to overturning narrow majorities in several constituencies. Future Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was elected to the House of Commons for the first time as the MP for Finchley, where she would represent until her retirement from politics 33 years later at the 1992 general election.

For Labour, the result was disappointing; despite appearing more united than they had in recent years under Gaitskell's leadership, the party suffered a third consecutive defeat. James Callaghan believed that the Conservatives increased their majority in part because working-class Labour voters were still angry at the party for opposing the Suez conflict.James Callaghan, Time and Chance (London: Collins, 1987), p. 515. Many of both the Labour Party's supporters and opponents, including Prime Minister Macmillan himself, also blamed the Gaitskellite leadership for spending more time preparing to form a government with the assumption that they would win the election than actually campaigning or offering criticism of the Conservative Party's leadership. Political scientists Mark Abrams and Richard Rose blamed Labour's electoral losses from 1959 onwards on an "embourgeoisement" in which British voters identified increasingly with the middle class, leaving Labour's appeals to the working class less effective. Another key factor was the decline of support of younger voters after 1955, although older voters over the age of 65 increased support for the party in 1959 because of its pledges to expand pensions.

While the Liberal Party earned more than twice as many votes compared to the previous general election, this was largely the result of them nominating nearly double the number of candidates that they did four years prior; their average number of votes-per-candidate only slightly improved. Future Liberal Party Leader Jeremy Thorpe was elected to Parliament for the first time, as the MP for North Devon.

The Daily Mirror, despite being a staunch supporter of the Labour Party, wished Macmillan "good luck" on its front page following his election victory.

The BBC Television Service's election coverage, presented by Richard Dimbleby, was shown on BBC Parliament on 9 October 2009 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the election and again on 9 October 2019 to mark the sixtieth anniversary.

The 1959 general election was the first election to be covered by commercial television in the United Kingdom. The ITV network provided election night coverage from the studios of Independent Television News (ITN) in London, with ITV given permission by the Independent Television Authority to use all of the ITV companies on air in 1959 for election links to the main studio in London. Ian Trethowan was the presenter for the ITV coverage.

Results

Summary of seats returned

+ Party Leader MPs Aggregate votes Of total Of total Conservative and Unionist Party Harold Macmillan 365 13,750,875 49.4% Conservative Party Harold Macmillan 308 11,479,459 41.2% Unionist Party James Stuart 25 1,060,609 3.8% National Liberal Party James Duncan 20 765,794 2.7% Ulster Unionist Party Basil Brooke 12 445,013 1.6% Labour Party Hugh Gaitskell 258 12,216,172 43.8% Liberal Party Jo Grimond 6 1,640,760 5.9% Independent Unionist 1 12,163 0.0%

Full results

+Results of the October 1959 general election to the House of Commons of the United KingdomPartyLeaderCandidatesMPsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%)   Conservative (Total) HaroldMacmillan 625 365 30 10 20 57.9 13,750,875 49.4 0.3 HaroldMacmillan 586 345 29 8 21 54.8 12,985,081 46.6 JamesDuncan 39 20 1 2 1 3.2 765,794 2.7 0.4   Labour HughGaitskell 621 258 6 25 19 41.0 12,216,172 43.8 2.6   Liberal JoGrimond 216 6 1 1 1.0 1,640,760 5.9 3.2   Plaid Cymru GwynforEvans 20 0 0 0 — 77,571 0.3 0.1   Sinn Féin PaddyMcLogan 12 0 0 2 2 — 63,415 0.2 0.4   Communist JohnGollan 18 0 0 0 — 30,896 0.1   SNP JimmyHalliday 5 0 0 0 — 21,738 0.1 0.1   Independent Labour Group FrankHanna 1 0 colspan=3 — 20,062 0.1   IndependentUnionist 1 1 colspan=2 1 0.2 12,163 0.0   Independent 5 0 0 0 — 7,492 0.0 0.1   Fife Socialist League LawrenceDaly 1 0 colspan=3 — 4,886 0.0   IndependentLiberal 2 0 0 0 — 4,473 0.0   Union Movement OswaldMosley 1 0 colspan=3 — 2,821 0.0   IndependentConservative 1 0 0 0 — 1,955 0.0   LancastrianParty TomEmmott 1 0 colspan=3 — 1,889 0.0   National Labour JohnBean 1 0 colspan=3 — 1,685 0.0   Fellowship RonaldMallone 1 1 colspan=3 — 1,189 0.0   Ind. Labour Party FredMorel 2 0 0 0 — 923 0.0   Socialist (GB) 1 0 0 0 — 899 0.0   Alert Party GeorgeForrester 1 0 colspan=3 — 788 0.0 Total 1,536 630 0 100.0 27,862,652 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 35,397,304 78.7 1.9

Votes summary

Seat summary

Transfers of seats All comparisons are with the 1955 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 1959. Such circumstances are marked with a †. FromToNo.Seats (HOLD)many 1Bristol North East 25Acton, Barons Court, Birmingham All Saints, Birmingham Sparkbrook, Birmingham Yardley, Brierley Hill, Bristol North West, Clapham, Cleveland, Coventry South, Derbyshire SE, The Hartlepools, Holborn and St Pancras South, Keighley, Lowestoft, Meriden, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Nottingham West, Reading, Rochester and Chatham, Rugby, Swansea West, Uxbridge, Wellingborough, Willesden East 2Mid Ulster1, Fermanagh and South Tyrone2 1Carmarthen† (HOLD)5Bolton West, Cardiganshire, Huddersfield West, Montgomeryshire, Orkney and Shetland (HOLD)16Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Bedfordshire South, Bradford North, Bradford West, Dumfriesshire, Fife East, Harwich, Holland with Boston, Huntingdonshire, Luton, Norfolk Central, Plymouth Devonport, Renfrewshire West, Ross and Cromarty, St Ives 3Denbigh, Newcastle upon Tyne North†, Torrington3 6Ayrshire Central, Glasgow Craigton, Glasgow Scotstoun, Lanark, Oldham East, Rochdale† 1Devon North (HOLD)many 1Caithness and Sutherland* 10North Antrim, South Antrim, Armagh, Belfast East, Belfast North, Belfast South, Belfast West, Down North, Down South, Londonderry 1Cirencester and Tewkesbury

1 Sinn Féin winner in 1955 overturned on petition. The second-placed Ulster Unionist candidate was also overturned, by resolution of the House; eventually the 1956 by-election was held, which returned an Independent Unionist. This candidate later defected to the Ulster Unionists. 2 Sinn Féin winner in 1955 overturned on petition for criminal conviction. The second-placed candidate, an Ulster Unionist, was awarded the seat. He retained it in 1959. 3 Seat had been won by the Liberals in a 1958 by-election.

See also List of MPs elected in the 1959 United Kingdom general election 1959 United Kingdom general election in England 1959 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1959 United Kingdom general election in Wales 1959 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1959–1964) List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1959–1964)

Notes

References

Sources

the standard scholarly study.

External links United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979

Manifestos The Next Five Years, 1959 Conservative Party manifesto Britain Belongs to You: The Labour Party's Policy for Consideration by the British People, 1959 Labour Party manifesto People Count, 1959 Liberal Party manifesto