On Thursday 3 May 1979, the 1979 United Kingdom general election was held in Wales, to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons, with 36 constituencies being in Wales.
The election was held following the defeat of the Labour government in a no-confidence motion on 28 March 1979, six months before the Parliament was due for dissolution in October 1979. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher, ousted the incumbent Labour government of Prime Minister James Callaghan, gaining a parliamentary majority of 43 seats. The election was the first of four consecutive election victories for the Conservative Party, although the Labour Party would remain the largest party in Wales throughout that these elections.
John Morris, Baron Morris of Aberavon was under the impression that Prime Minister James Callaghan would call a general election in the autumn of 1978, but called it off. A Welsh devolution referendum was held in March 1979, two months prior. A Welsh Assembly was rejected, with regional distrust as a potential factor.
Candidates
Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1979 general election in Wales.
Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 36Plaid Cymru 36Conservative Party 35Liberal Party 28Communist Party of Great Britain 8National Front 5Ecology Party 2Workers Revolutionary Party 1Socialist Unity 1Severnside Libertarian 1New Britain Party 1Total 154
Analysis
The Labour Party won the most votes in Wales, although the Conservatives won most votes UK-wide. However, in Wales, the Labour Party won the greatest amount votes and seats in Wales in spite of the general trend.
The Labour Party, gained one seat, although lost two to the Conservatives. Labour won Carmarthen from Plaid Cymru. Plaid Cymru retained its seats in Caernarvon and Merionethshire.
However, the Conservatives won Brecon and Radnorshire from Labour. Thatcher's Party also won Anglesey from the first time since the old Tory Party had held the seat in 1722. The Conservatives also won Montgomeryshire again long-time Liberal Party MP Emlyn Hooson. Liberal Party did, however, retain its one seat of Cardiganshire.
The Conservative Party retained its eight seats of Cardiff North West, Pembrokeshire, Barry, Cardiff North, West Flintshire, Denbigh, Conway and Monmouth. Overall, the Conservatives gained three seats in comparison to the previous election. At 11 Welsh MPs, this was the greatest number of seats that the Conservative Party had ever held in Wales since 1924, and this would be matched in 2017 and outdone in 1983 and 2019. The Conservative Party had received its greatest vote share since 1959 (when combined with its then allies the National Liberal Party), and only would be outdone by the its vote in 2017 and 2019.
Results Below is a table summarising the results of the 1979 general election in Wales.
+PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%) 22 0 1 1 61.1 795,493 48.6 0.9 11 3 0 3 30.6 526,254 32.2 8.3 2 0 1 1 5.6 132,544 8.1 2.7 1 0 1 1 2.8 173,525 10.6 4.9 0 0 0 — 4,310 0.3 0.1 0 colspan=3 — 2,465 0.2 0 colspan=3 — 1,250 0.1 Severnside Libertarian 0 colspan=3 — 375 0.0 0 colspan=3 — 132 0.0 0 colspan=3 — 126 0.0 0 0 0 — 114 0.0 Total 36 0 100.0 1,636,588 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 79.4 2.8
See also 1979 United Kingdom general election in England 1979 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1979 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1979–1983)
Notes
References