United Kingdom general election, October 1974

10 October 1974

→ 1979

All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority

Turnout	72.8% (6.0%)
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Harold Wilson	Edward Heath	Jeremy Thorpe
Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal
Leader since	14 February 1963	28 July 1965	18 January 1967
Leader's seat	Huyton	Sidcup	North Devon
Last election	301 seats, 37.2%	297 seats, 37.9%	14 seats, 19.3%
Seats won	319	277	13
Seat change	18	20	1
Popular vote	11,457,079	10,462,565	5,346,704
Percentage	39.2%	35.8%	18.3%
Swing	2%	2.1%	1%

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

PM before election

Harold Wilson
Labour

Subsequent PM

Harold Wilson
Labour

The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson winning an overall majority of just 3 seats.

The election of February that year had produced an unexpected hung parliament. Coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the Ulster Unionists failed, allowing Labour leader Harold Wilson to form a minority government. The October campaign was not as vigorous or exciting as the one in February. Despite continuing high inflation, Labour was able to boast that it had ended the miners' strike, which had dogged Heath's premiership, and had returned some stability. The Conservative Party, still led by Edward Heath, released a manifesto promoting national unity; however their chances of forming a government were hindered by the Ulster Unionist Party refusing to take their whip at Westminster in response to the Sunningdale Agreement of 1973.