United Kingdom general election, 1970

E85289

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was a national parliamentary election in which Edward Heath’s Conservative Party unexpectedly defeated Harold Wilson’s governing Labour Party, leading to a change of government.

All labels observed (3)

How this entity was disambiguated

Statements (49)

Predicate Object
instanceOf United Kingdom general election
parliamentary election
campaignIssue Britain’s relationship with the European Economic Community
economy
industrial relations
prices and inflation
conservativePopularVote 13,145,123
conservativePopularVoteShare 46.4%
conservativeSeatChange +77
conservativeSeatsWon 330
country United Kingdom
electoralSystem first-past-the-post
forLegislativeBody House of Commons of the United Kingdom
forOffice Member of Parliament
governmentAfterElection Conservative government
governmentBeforeElection Labour government
hasEndDate 1970-06-18
hasStartDate 1970-06-18
labourPopularVote 12,208,758
labourPopularVoteShare 43.1%
labourSeatChange -75
labourSeatsWon 288
leaderOfConservativeParty Edward Heath
leaderOfLabourParty Harold Wilson
leaderOfLiberalParty Jeremy Thorpe
leadingPartyAfterElection Conservative Party (UK)
leadingPartyBeforeElection Labour Party (UK)
legislativeTermNumber 46th Parliament of the United Kingdom
liberalPopularVote 2,117,035
liberalPopularVoteShare 7.5%
liberalSeatChange -6
liberalSeatsWon 6
mainOpponentParty Labour Party (UK)
majoritySeats 316
nextElection February 1974 United Kingdom general election
notableFeature opinion polls predicted Labour victory
result considered a major polling upset
numberOfSeatsContested 630
outcome change of government
pointInTime 1970
previousElection United Kingdom general election, 1966
primeMinisterAfterElection Edward Heath
primeMinisterBeforeElection Harold Wilson
reasonForElection dissolution of Parliament by Harold Wilson
thirdParty Liberal Party (UK, pre-1988)
linked to: Liberal Party (UK)
turnout 72.0%
turnoutChange -3.8 percentage points
wasEarlyElection true
wasUnexpected true

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (8)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Jeremy Thorpe participantIn United Kingdom general election, 1970
February 1974 United Kingdom general election previousElection 1970 United Kingdom general election
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970
Wycombe (UK Parliament constituency) hasElection 1970 United Kingdom general election
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970
Aldershot (UK Parliament constituency) hasElection 1970 United Kingdom general election
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970
Wakefield (UK Parliament constituency) hasElectionResult 1970 United Kingdom general election in Wakefield
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970
Wallasey (UK Parliament constituency) hasElection 1970 United Kingdom general election
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970
United Kingdom general election, 1966 nextElection United Kingdom general election, 1970
Labour government (Harold Wilson, 1964–1970) lostPowerIn 1970 United Kingdom general election
subject linked to: Labour government
linked to: United Kingdom general election, 1970