United Kingdom general election, 1959

United Kingdom general election, 1959

1955 ← 8 October 1959 → 1964

outgoing members ← → elected members

All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority Turnout 78.7% (1.9%)   First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Macmillan Hugh Gaitskell Jo Grimond Party Conservative Labour Liberal Leader since 10 January 1957 14 December 1955 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Bromley Leeds South Orkney and Shetland Last election 345 seats, 49.7% 277 seats, 46.4% 6 seats, 2.7% Seats won 365 258 6 Seat change 20 19 0 Popular vote 13,750,875 12,216,172 1,640,760 Percentage 49.4% 43.8% 5.9% Swing 0.3% 2.6% 3.2%

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

PM before election Harold Macmillan Conservative Subsequent PM Harold Macmillan Conservative

1951 election • MPs

1955 election • MPs

1959 election • MPs

1964 election • MPs

Harold Macmillan
Conservative

Harold Macmillan
Conservative

This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, now led by Harold Macmillan. The Conservatives increased their overall majority again, to 100 seats over the Labour Party under Hugh Gaitskell. However, despite this success, they failed to win the most seats in Scotland, and have not done so since, marking the beginning of Labour's dominance until the rise of the Scottish National Party at the 2015 election.

Following the Suez Crisis in 1956, Anthony Eden the Conservative Prime Minister became unpopular and resigned early the following year to be succeeded by Harold Macmillan. At this stage, the Labour Party, with Hugh Gaitskell having taken over as leader from Clement Attlee just after the 1955 election, enjoyed large opinion poll leads over the Conservatives, and it looked as if they could win.

The Liberals also had a new leader in Jo Grimond, meaning that all three parties would contest the election with a new leader at the helm.

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Wikipedia