February 1974 United Kingdom general election in England

February 1974 United Kingdom general election in England

← 1970 28 February 1974 October 1974 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 516 English seats in the House of Commons 259 seats needed for English majority
First party Second party Third party   Lib 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 216 seats, 43.4% 292 seats, 48.3% 2 seats, 7.9% Seats won 237 268 9 Seat change 21 24 7 Percentage 37.7% 40.2% 21.3% Swing 5.7% 8.1% 13.4%

The February 1974 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 28 February 1974 to elect 635 members of the House of Commons, of which 523 constituencies were in England.

While in the House of Commons, there emerged a hung parliament with the Labour Party winning 301 seats to the 297 won by the Conservative Party, in England, the Conservatives won 268 seats to Labour's 237.^[1]

The Labour Party led by former prime minister Harold Wilson formed a minority government on 4 March 1974 after the incumbent Conservative government led by Prime Minister Edward Heath failed to form a coalition government with the Liberal Party led by Jeremy Thorpe .

As no party commanded a majority, a second general election was held in October in which the Labour Party gained a wafer-thin majority in the House of Commons. However, even in that election, Labour failed to win a majority of seats in England- it won just two seats more than the defeated Conservatives.