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UK general election, 1964

The United Kingdom general election of 1964 result was as follows

PartyVotesShareMPs
Labour12,205,80844.1%317
Conservative12,002,64243.4%304
Liberal3,099,28311.2%9

The result of the election was a very slim majority for the Labour Party, of 4, and led to their first government since 1951. The Labour victory was largely due to the increased vote for the Liberals from 5.9% in 1959 to 11.2% which came at the expense of the Conservatives. Rather than an increase in the vote for Labour, which was less than the 1959 total.

Harold Wilson became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The majority was unworkable and there had to be another general election in 1966. In particular, the small majority of Wilson's government resulted in its being unable to implement the party's policiy of nationalising the steel industry, due to the opposition of two of its back benchers: Woodrow Wyatt and Desmond Donnelly.