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1966 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

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1966 United Kingdom general election

← 1964 31 March 1966 1970 →

All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Last election 43 seats, 48.7% 24 seats, 40.6% 4 seats, 7.6%
Seats won 46 20 5
Seat change Increase3 Decrease4 Increase 1
Popular vote 1,273,916 960,675 172,447
Percentage 49.9 37.6 6.8%
Swing Increase 1.2 Decrease3.0% Decrease0.8%

Results of the 1966 election in Scotland
  Conservative/Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 31 March 1966, and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested.[1] The election took place only 17 months after the 1964 United Kingdom general election, with incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson deciding to call a snap election since his government had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. Combined with results from across the UK, the result was a landslide victory for Wilson's Labour Party.

The election was first in which the Scottish Conservatives stood for election as a integral part of the Conservative Party, with the former Unionist Party (which had been aligned with, but separate from, the Conservatives), having merged into the Tories in April 1965.[2][3] Both Labour and Liberal parties gained seats from the newly merged Conservatives at the election.

MPs

[edit]

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (1966–1970)

Results

[edit]
Party Seats Seats
change
Votes % %
change
Labour 46 Increase 3 1,273,916 49.9 Increase 1.2
Conservative 20 Decrease 4 960,675 37.6 Decrease 3.0
Liberal 5 Increase 1 172,447 6.8 Decrease 0.8
SNP 0 Steady 128,474 5.0 Increase 2.6
Communist 0 Steady 16,230 0.6 Increase 0.1
Other 0 Steady 638 0.0 Decrease 0.2
Turnout: 2,552,380


Votes summary

[edit]
Popular vote
Labour
49.9%
Unionist
37.6%
Liberal
6.8%
SNP
5.0%
Other
0.7%
Parliamentary seats
Labour
46 seats
Unionist
20 seats
Liberal
5 seats

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 November 2020.
  2. ^ Torrance, David (April 2018). "'Standing up for Scotland': The Scottish Unionist Party and 'nationalist unionism', 1912–68". Scottish Affairs. 27 (2): 180. doi:10.3366/scot.2018.0235 – via Edinburgh University Press.
  3. ^ Urwin, D.W. (1 June 1966). "Scottish Conservatism: A Party Organization in Transition". Political Studies. 14 (2): 145–162. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9248.1966.tb00399.x. Retrieved 18 August 2024.