1983 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1983 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

9 June 1983

All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout72.7%, 4.14%
  First party Second party
 
Leader Michael Foot Margaret Thatcher
Party Labour Conservative
Leader since 10 November 1980 11 February 1975
Last election 44 seats, 41.5% 22 seats, 31.4%
Seats won 41 21
Seat change 3 1
Popular vote 990,654 801,487
Percentage 35.1% 28.4%
Swing 6.5% 3.0%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Gordon Wilson
Party Alliance SNP
Leader since
15 September 1979
Last election 3 seats, 9.0% 2 seats, 17.3%
Seats won 8 2
Seat change 5
Popular vote 692,634 331,975
Percentage 24.5% 11.8%
Swing 15.5% 5.5%

Results of the 1983 election in Scotland

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 9 June 1983 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested. As a result of the Third Periodical Review undertaken by the Boundary Commission for Scotland the number of seats representing Scotland had increased by one from the 71 contested at the 1979 election.

The Labour, Conservative and Scottish National parties all sustained modest losses in vote share to the SDP–Liberal Alliance. The Labour Party won 41 seats, with the Conservative Party winning 21, the Alliance winning eight and the Scottish National Party winning two. The Scottish Conservatives have been unable to match their 1983 Westminster seat total since, although they did record a slightly larger share of the Scottish vote in 2017.

When combined with results from across the United Kingdom, the election saw the Conservatives winning a landslide victory, improving on their 1979 result and achieving their best results since 1935. Although there was a slight drop in their share of the vote, they made significant gains at the expense of Labour. This was at odds with the Scottish result, as Labour remained by far the largest party in Scotland.