On Thursday 10 October 1974, the October 1974 United Kingdom general election was held in Scotland, to elect all 635 members of the House of Commons, with 71 constituencies being in Scotland.

It was the second general election held that year. This election was held just seven months after the previous general election, held in February 1974, had led to a hung parliament. Following the inconclusive nature of coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the disaffiliated Ulster Unionists, the Labour Leader Harold Wilson had gone on to form a minority government. After 8 months, Wilson felt he had demonstrated enough progress to win a majority, and called a second election. It was also the first year in which two general elections had been held in the same year since 1910; and the first time that two general elections had been held less than a year apart from each other since the 1923 and 1924 elections, which took place 10 months apart.

Across the United Kingdom, the election resulted in a narrow victory for the Labour Party, led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, which won a wafer-thin majority of three seats, the narrowest in modern British history.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the February 1974 general election in Wales.

Affiliation Candidates Labour Party 71 Conservative Party 71 Scottish National Party 71 Scottish Liberal Party 68 Communist Party of Great Britain 9 National Front 1 Campaign for a More Prosperous Britain 1 Fine Gael (Scotland) 1Total 293

Analysis

In Scotland the Conservative saw an 8.2% drop in support, and lost 5 seats. Although the Labour Party also saw a slight decline in vote share, it was able to pick up one additional seat. Between Labour and the Conservatives, Labour won Berwick and East Lothian.

The Scottish Liberal Party once again slightly increased its vote share and retained its seat in Inverness, with former Leader of the Liberal Party Jo Grimond retaining Orkney and Shetland and future Leader David Steel retaining Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles.

When combined with results from across the United Kingdom the election resulted in Labour winning a wafer-thin majority of three seats, the narrowest in modern British history.

The Scottish National Party became the second largest party in Scotland by popular vote for the first time in its history: with 30% of the Scottish popular vote and 11 of Scotland's 71 seats this was the party's most successful general election result until the 2015 election. The party retained Argyllshire, Banffshire, East Aberdeenshire, Moray and Nairn, Western Isles, Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire and Dundee East. However, it further won East Dunbartonshire, Galloway, Perth and East Perthshire and South Angus from the Conservative Party.

Results +PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%) 41 1 0 1 57.7 1,000,581 36.3 0.3 11 4 0 4 15.5 839,617 30.4 8.5 16 0 5 5 22.5 681,327 24.7 8.2 3 0 0 4.2 228,855 8.3 0.4 0 0 0 — 7,453 0.3 0.2 0 colspan="3" — 86 0.0 0 colspan="3" — 27 0.0   Fine Gael (Scotland) 0 colspan="3" — 155 0.0 Total 36 0 100.0 2,758,101 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 3,686,792 74.8 4.2

See also October 1974 United Kingdom general election in England October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Wales October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (October 1974–1979)

Notes

References