Results
The election resulted in a very slim majority for the Labour Party, of four seats, and led to their first government since 1951. Labour achieved a swing of just over 3% although its own vote rose by only 0.2%. The main shift was in fact between the Conservatives and the Liberal Party, where the latter enjoyed a swing of 5.7% in their favour. The Liberal Party won nearly twice as many votes as in 1959, but did so partly by nominating 150 more candidates. Harold Wilson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, replacing Sir Alec Douglas-Home. The majority was not sustainable for a full Parliament and Wilson called another general election in 1966. In particular, the small majority of Wilson's government resulted in its being unable to implement the party's policy of nationalising the steel industry, due to the opposition of two of its back benchers: Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly.
The election also saw the only time in the UK's recent history where all seats were divided between only the three main parties; that is, no minor parties, independents or splinter groups were able to obtain a seat.
| UK general election 1964 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | ||||||||||||||
| Party | Standing | Elected | Gained | Unseated | Net | % of total | % | No. | Net % | ||||||
| Labour | 628 | 317 | 65 | 6 | + 59 | 50.3 | 44.1 | 12,205,808 | |||||||
| Conservative | 630 | 304 | 5 | 66 | - 61 | 48.3 | 43.4 | 12,002,642 | |||||||
| Liberal | 365 | 9 | 5 | 2 | + 3 | 1.4 | 11.2 | 3,099,283 | |||||||
| Independent Republican | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.4 | 101,628 | ||||||||
| Plaid Cymru | 23 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 69,507 | ||||||||
| SNP | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 64,044 | ||||||||
| Communist | 36 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 46,442 | ||||||||
| Independent | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 18,677 | ||||||||
| Independent Liberal | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 16,064 | ||||||||
| Republican Labour | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 14,678 | ||||||||
| Independent Conservative | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 6,459 | ||||||||
| British National | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 3,410 | ||||||||
| Ind. Nuclear Disarmament | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,534 | ||||||||
| Fellowship | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,112 | ||||||||
| Patriotic Party | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,108 | ||||||||
| League of Empire Loyalists | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1,046 | ||||||||
| Independent Communist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 899 | ||||||||
| True Conservative | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 709 | ||||||||
| Agriculturalist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 534 | ||||||||
| National Democratic | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 349 | ||||||||
| Socialist (GB) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 322 | ||||||||
| World Government | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 318 | ||||||||
| British and Commonwealth | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 310 | ||||||||
| Christian Socialist | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 265 | ||||||||
All parties are shown. Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists and National Liberals.
| Government's new majority | 4 |
| Total votes cast | 27,657,148 |
| Turnout | 77% |
Read more about this topic: United Kingdom General Election, 1964
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