On Thursday 15 October 1964, the 1964 United Kingdom general election was held in England, to elect all 630 members of the House of Commons, with 511 constituencies being in England.

Candidates

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

Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 511Conservative Party 500Liberal Party 323Communist Party of Great Britain 22Independent 13National Liberal Party 11Independent Conservative 4Independent Liberal 3Anti-Common Market League 2League of Empire Loyalists 2Independent Nuclear Disarmament 2Patriotic Party 2Other 14Total 1,409

Analysis

Conservatives and Labour

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

The Conservative Party lost a total of 55 seats to the Labour Party, however gained Birmingham Perry Barr, Eton and Slough, South West Norfolk and Smethwick from Labour. Conversely, the Labour Party won 55 seats from the Conservative Party and two from the Liberals, though losing a four to the Conservatives. Overall, the Labour Party gained 53 seats at this election.

National Liberal Party

The National Liberal Party, which was in a constituency alliance with the Conservative Party, held Bradford West, Bristol North East, Harwich, Holland with Boston, Huntingdonshire and St Ives.

The National Liberals, however, lost more than half of its seats in England. The majority of its losses came from sitting MPs standing as official candidates for the Conservative party rather than the National Liberals. Such members were Joan Vickers in Plymouth Devonport, Norman Cole in Bedfordshire South, John Osborn in Sheffield Hallam and Sir Peter Roberts in Sheffield Heeley. This also occurred in Norfolk Central. Ian Gilmour had won the seat at the 1962 Central Norfolk by-election following the death of Richard Collard, however stood as a Conservative candidate, winning the seat again at this election.

The National Liberals further lost Bradford North to the Labour Party. It also Luton to the Labour Party. In Luton, William Howie had retained the seat he had won at the 1963 Luton by-election. As such, the National Liberal Party lost seven seats in England. Along with the losses of the Conservative Party to Labour and the Liberal Party, and seats transferred between the National Liberals and Conservatives, the alliance lost an overall 53 seats in England.

Liberal Party

The Liberal Party lost Bolton West and Huddersfield West (initially held by the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party Donald Wade) in the North to the Labour Party, however gained Bodmin and Orpington from the Conservatives. The party's seat count did not change overall, although the party stood significantly more candidates than it had in previous elections, significantly increasing its vote share.

Results

+Party SeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference   Conservative (Total) 262 9 62 53 51.3 10,106,028 44.1 5.9 256 9 55 46 50.1 9,894,014 43.1 4.6 6 0 7 7 1.2 212,014 0.9 1.4   Labour 246 57 4 53 48.1 9,982,360 43.5 0.1   Liberal 3 2 2 0.6 2,775,752 12.1 5.8   Communist 0 0 0 — 24,824 0.1   Independent Liberal 0 0 0 — 14,011 0.1 0.1   Independent 0 0 0 — 12,495 0.1 0.1   Ind. Conservative 0 0 0 — 3,664 0.0   British National 0 colspan=3 — 3,410 0.0   Anti-Common Market 0 colspan=3 — 3,083 0.0   New Liberal 0 colspan=3 — 2,053 0.0   Independent Nuclear Disarmament 0 colspan=3 — 1,534 0.0   Fellowship 0 0 0 — 1,112 0.0   Communist Anti-Revisionist 0 colspan=3 — 899 0.0   Christian Progressive 0 colspan=3 — 865 0.0   Ratepayer (Romford) 0 colspan=3 — 811 0.0   Empire Loyalists 0 colspan=3 — 789 0.0   Taxpayers' Coalition 0 colspan=3 — 709 0.0   Patriotic Party 0 colspan=3 — 539 0.0   Farmers' Candidate 0 colspan=3 — 534 0.0  National Democratic 0 colspan=3 — 349 0.0  World Government 0 colspan=3 — 318 0.0  British and Commonwealth 0 colspan=3 — 310 0.0  Social Credit 0 colspan=3 — 304 0.0  Christian Socialist 0 colspan=3 — 264 0.0   Socialist (GB) 0 0 0 — 234 0.0 Total 511 0 100.0 22,937,251 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 29,804,627 77.0 1.9

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 24 4 0 4 63.2 48.2 0.7 14 0 4 4 36.8 42.2 4.7 0 0 0 0.0 9.5 5.3   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 31 1 6 5 75.6 46.4 4.8 10 6 1 5 24.4 40.8 0.6 0 0 0 0.0 12.7 4.3   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 0.1 Total 41

Greater London

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 53 11 0 11 51.9 44.4 1.1 48 0 12 12 47.1 42.4 7.0 1 1 0 1 1.0 12.5 5.6   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.7 0.3 Total 102

North East England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 27 6 0 6 87.1 58.5 1.8 4 0 6 6 12.9 37.5 4.4 0 0 0 0.0 3.9 2.4   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 0.1 Total 31

North West England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 52 14 0 14 62.7 45.9 1.0 31 0 13 13 37.3 43.1 7.2 0 0 1 1 0.0 10.6 6.0   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.4 0.3 Total 83

South East England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 53 1 5 4 86.9 50.4 8.4 8 5 1 4 13.1 32.7 0.9 0 0 0 0.0 16.8 9.2   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 0.1 Total 61

South West England

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 36 0 1 1 80.0 45.4 5.5 7 5 0 15.6 33.6 0.6 2 1 0 1 4.4 20.5 5.8   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.5 0.4 Total 45

West Midlands

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 28 5 2 3 51.9 45.2 0.7 26 2 5 3 48.1 46.8 3.9 0 0 0 0.0 7.8 4.6   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.3 0.1 Total 54

Yorkshire and the Humber

+ Party Seats Aggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of all (%) Total Of all (%) Difference 37 6 0 6 66.1 49.4 0.8 19 0 5 5 33.9 39.4 5.4 0 0 1 1 0.0 11.0 6.1   Others 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 0.1 Total 56

See also 1964 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland 1964 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1964 United Kingdom general election in Wales

Notes

References

Further reading 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.