1964 United Kingdom general election

1964 United Kingdom general election

15 October 1964

All 630 seats in the House of Commons
316 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout27,657,148
77.1% (1.7 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Harold Wilson Alec Douglas-Home Jo Grimond
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Leader since 14 February 1963 18 October 1963 5 November 1956
Leader's seat Huyton Kinross and Western Perthshire Orkney and Shetland
Last election 258 seats, 43.8% 365 seats, 49.4% 6 seats, 5.9%
Seats won 317 304 9
Seat change 59 61 3
Popular vote 12,205,808 12,002,642 3,099,283
Percentage 44.1% 43.4% 11.2%
Swing 0.3 pp 6.0 pp 5.3 pp

Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results

Composition of the House of Commons after the election

Prime Minister before election

Alec Douglas-Home
Conservative

Prime Minister after election

Harold Wilson
Labour

Preview warning: Using more than one of the following parameters in Template:Infobox election: elected_members, elected_mps.

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 15 October 1964. It resulted in the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home, narrowly losing to the Labour Party, led by Harold Wilson; Labour secured a parliamentary majority of four seats and ended its thirteen years in opposition since the 1951 election. At age 47, Wilson became the youngest Prime Minister since Lord Rosebery in 1894.