October 1974 United Kingdom general election

← Feb 1974 10 October 1974 1979 →
← List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, February 1974 List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, October 1974 →
All 635 seats in the House of Commons 318 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	72.8%, 6.0%
First party Second party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Party Labour Conservative Leader's seat Huyton Sidcup Last election 301 seats, 37.2% 297 seats, 37.9% Seats won 319 277 Seat change 18 20 Popular vote 11,457,079 10,462,565 Percentage 39.2% 35.8% Swing 2.0% 2.1%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jeremy Thorpe William Wolfe Party Liberal SNP Leader's seat North Devon Stood in West Lothian (lost) Last election 14 seats, 19.3% 7 seats, 2.0% Seats won 13 11 Seat change 1 4 Popular vote 5,346,704 839,617 Percentage 18.3% 2.9% Swing 1.0% 0.9%
Colours show the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

A general election was held on the 10 October 1974 to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party won the election with a very small majority of 3 seats and Harold Wilson stayed as Prime Minister.

This was the second general election to happen in 1974. The last election in February ended in a hung parliament and no parties wanted to start a coalition government. This meant Labour had to start a minority government. This is why a second election was held, because governments are very hard to run if they do not have a majority.^[1][2]

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