On Thursday 10 October 1974, the October 1974 United Kingdom general election was held in Wales, to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons, with 36 constituencies being in Wales.

It was the second general election held that year. This election was held just seven months after the previous general election, held in February 1974, had led to a hung parliament. Following the inconclusive nature of coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the disaffiliated Ulster Unionists, the Labour Leader Harold Wilson had gone on to form a minority government. After 8 months, Wilson felt he had demonstrated enough progress to win a majority, and called a second election. It was also the first year in which two general elections had been held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections had been held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart.

Across the United Kingdom, the election resulted in a narrow victory for the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which won a wafer-thin majority of three seats, the narrowest in modern British history. In Wales, the election saw the Labour party win the most votes and seats in Wales. However, the only seat change that occurred in Wales was in Carmarthen wherein Plaid Cymru won its third seat from the Labour Party.

Otherwise, the Conservative Party retained its eight seats of Cardiff North West, Pembrokeshire, Barry, Cardiff North, West Flintshire, Denbigh, Conway and Monmouth.

Liberal Party retained Cardiganshire and Montgomeryshire, but with a minor decreased in vote share in Wales.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the October 1974 general election in Wales.

Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 36Conservative Party 36Liberal Party 36Plaid Cymru 36Communist Party of Great Britain 3 British Candidate 1 Marxist-Leninist Party (England) 1 Workers Revolutionary Party 1Total 150

Results

Below is a table summarising the results of the October 1974 general election in Wales.

+PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%) 23 0 1 1 63.9 761,447 49.5 2.7 8 0 0 22.2 367,230 23.9 2.0 2 0 0 5.6 239,057 15.5 0.5 3 1 0 1 8.3 166,321 10.8 0 0 0 — 2,941 0.2 0.1 0 0 0 — 427 0.0   British Candidate 0 colspan=3 — 342 0.0   Marxist-Leninist (England) 0 colspan=3 — 75 0.0 Total 36 0 100.0 1,537,840 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 2,008,284 76.6 3.4

See also October 1974 United Kingdom general election in England October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Scotland October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (October 1974–1979)

Notes

References