On Thursday 31 March 1966, the 1966 United Kingdom general election was held in England, to elect all 630 members of the House of Commons, with 511 constituencies being in England.

The election took place only 17 months after the 1964 United Kingdom general election, with incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson deciding to call a snap election since his government had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. Combined with results from across the UK, the result was a landslide victory for Wilson's Labour Party.

It was the last election at which the National Liberal Party stood candidates, before merging with its allies the Conservative Party in 1968.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1964 general election in England.

Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 511Conservative Party 501Liberal Party 273Communist Party of Great Britain 34Independent 13National Liberal Party 9Union Movement 4Independent Conservative 3British National Party 3Fellowship Party 1Independent Labour 1Independent Liberal 1New Liberal 1National Democratic Party 1Patriotic Party 1Radical Alliance 1Social Credit Party 1Socialist Party of Great Britain 1Independent Labour Party 1Coalition Unity 1National Teenage Party 1Total 1,363

Analysis

The incumbent Labour Party led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson won 286 seats in England, its second-highest tally of seats at the time. On the other hand, the Conservative Party, and its constituency allies the National Liberals, led by Edward Heath won only 216 seats, its lowest share of seats since the 1945 general election. It was also only the second time that the Labour Party had won more seats than the Conservatives in England since 1945.

The National Liberal Party only stood candidates in England at this election, with party losing all its seats in Scotland and Wales in 1964. Three of its MPs retained seats in England at this election, however it lost three of the six seats it had in the previous election. These were of Julian Ridsdale in Harwich, David Renton in Huntingdonshire and John Nott in St Ives. However, it lost the seat of Holland with Boston to its ally the Conservative Party, with National Liberal MP Herbert Butcher retiring from Parliament, and Conservative Richard Body winning the seat. It also lost Bristol North East and Bradford West to the Labour Party. The three remaining National Liberals resolved to formally merge with the Conservative Party after the election in 1968.

The Labour Party won an overall 40 seats from the Conservatives and National Liberal Party in England, though Patrick Duffy lost Colne Valley to Richard Wainwright of the Liberal Party. The Labour party would, however, regain the seat from the Liberal Party in the 1970 general election. The Liberal Party also won Cheadle and North Cornwall from the Conservative Party.

It was the only election between 1945 and 1997 general election in which the Labour Party won a majority of seats in England. Concurrently, this was the only election between 1945 and 1997 in which the Labour Party got a working majority in the House of Commons sufficient to last a full term in office (In 1950, 1964 and October 1974, the Labour majority was 5, 4 and 3 seats respectively).

Results +Party SeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference   Labour 286 41 1 40 55.8 10,886,408 48.0 4.5   Conservative (Total) 219 1 44 43 42.9 9,692,356 42.7 1.4 216 1 41 40 50.1 9,542,577 42.1 1.0 3 0 3 3 1.2 149,779 0.7 0.2   Liberal 6 3 0 3 1.2 2,036,793 9.0 3.1   Communist 0 0 0 — 33,093 0.1   Independent 0 0 0 — 23,384 0.1   British National 0 0 0 — 5,182 0.0   Union Movement 0 colspan=3 — 4,075 0.0   Ind. Conservative 0 0 0 — 3,206 0.0   Independent Labour 0 colspan=3 — 1,931 0.0   New Liberal 0 0 0 — 1,127 0.0   Fellowship 0 0 0 — 906 0.0   Coalition Unity 0 colspan=3 — 826 0.0   National Democratic 0 0 0 — 769 0.0   Independent Liberal 0 0 0 — 716 0.0 0.1   National Teenage Party 0 colspan=3 — 585 0.0   Ind. Labour Party 0 0 0 — 441 0.0  Social Credit 0 0 0 — 397 0.0   Socialist (GB) 0 0 0 — 211 0.0   Radical Alliance 0 0 0 — 163 0.0   Patriotic Party 0 0 0 — 163 0.0 Total 511 0 100.0 22,692,695 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 29,894,141 75.9 1.1

By region

Note: the following tables indicate the results according to the regions of England which were established in 1994, based on the county boundaries established in the 1974 local government reforms. These regions were not used at the time for the purposes of this election. East Midlands

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 27 3 0 3 71.1 52.7 4.5 11 0 3 3 28.9 41.2 1.0 0 0 0 0.0 6.1 3.4   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 Total 38

East of England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 26 0 5 5 63.4 45.7 0.7 15 5 0 5 36.6 44.9 4.1 0 0 0 0.0 9.3 3.4   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 Total 41

Greater London

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 65 12 0 12 63.7 49.0 4.6 36 0 12 12 35.3 41.0 1.4 1 0 0 1.0 9.3 3.2   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.7 Total 102

North East England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 27 0 0 87.1 63.1 4.6 4 0 0 12.9 34.5 3.0 0 0 0 0.0 2.0 1.9   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.4 0.3 Total 31

North West England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 57 5 0 5 68.7 50.4 4.5 25 0 6 6 30.1 41.5 1.6 1 1 0 1 1.2 7.6 3.0   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.4 Total 83

South East England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 48 0 5 5 78.7 49.0 1.4 13 5 0 5 21.3 36.4 3.7 0 0 0 0.0 14.4 2.4   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 0.1 Total 61

South West England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 31 0 5 5 68.9 45.6 0.2 11 5 0 4 24.4 38.0 4.4 3 1 0 1 6.7 16.2 4.3   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 0.3 Total 45

West Midlands

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 32 4 0 4 59.3 50.8 5.6 22 0 4 4 40.7 44.7 2.1 0 0 0 0.0 4.1 3.7   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.4 0.1 Total 54

Yorkshire and the Humber

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 39 3 1 2 69.6 54.9 5.5 16 0 3 3 28.6 37.3 2.1 1 1 0 1 1.8 7.5 3.5   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.3 0.1 Total 56

See also 1966 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland 1966 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1966 United Kingdom general election in Wales

Notes

References

Further reading Thorpe, Andrew (1997). A History of the British Labour Party Butler, David E., and Anthony King. The British General Election of 1966 (1966) Bromhead, Peter. "The General Election of 1966". Parliamentary Affairs 19.3 (1966): 332–345.