UK general election, 1997

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1992 election
1997 election
2001 election

The 1 May 1997 UK general election brought the first change in UK Government for 18 years. The Labour Party led by Tony Blair defeated the incumbent Conservative Party, causing a major change to the political landscape of the United Kingdom.

The result declared for the constituency of Winchester showed a margin of victory of just 2 votes for the Liberal Democrats. The defeated Conservative candidate challenged the result on the grounds that errors by election officials (failures to stamp certain votes) had changed the result, forcing a by-election on 20 November which was won by the Liberal Democrats with a much larger majority, causing much recrimination in the Conservative Party about the choice to challenge the original result.

Overall Picture

The election has been described as a bloodbath for the ruling Tories. They lost all seats outside of England, and several prominent members, including

Labour won their largest parliamentary majority (179) to date, and the Liberal Democrats more than doubled their number of seats.

The Referendum Party came fourth with about 800,000 votes on a platform of seeking a referendum on the relationship with the European Union and may have taken some votes from the Conservatives; the next six parties only stood in one of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

An independent, Martin Bell, won the Tatton seat, where incumbent MP Neil Hamilton was facing charges of having taken cash for questions, but was determined to stand nonetheless. The Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrew in order for Bell to contest the seat.

Results

Party Votes Seats Loss/Gain Share of Vote (%)
Labour 13,518,167 418 + 147 45.2
Conservative 9,600,774 165 - 181 30.7
Liberal Democrats 5,242,947 46 + 26 16.8
Referendum 811,849 0 2.6
SNP 621,550 6 + 3 2.0
Ulster Unionist 258,349 10 + 1 0.8
SDLP 190,814 3 - 1 0.6
Plaid Cymru 161,030 4 0.5
Sinn Fein 126,921 2 + 2 0.4
Democratic Unionist 107,348 2 - 1 0.3
UK Independence 105,722 0 0.3
Green 63,991 0 0.3
Alliance (NI) 62,972 0 0.2
Socialist Labour 52,109 0 0.2
Liberal 45,166 0 0.1
Independent 41,367 0 0.1
BNP 35,832 0 0.1
Natural Law 30,604 0 0.1
Prolife Alliance 19,332 0 0.1
UK Unionist 12,817 1 0.0
Progressive Unionist 10,928 0 0.0
National Democrat 10,829 0 0.0
Socialist 9,906 0 0.0
Scottish Socialist 9,740 0 0.0
Independent Labour 9,233 0 0.0
Independent Conservative 8,608 0 0.0
Monster Raving Loony 7,906 0 0.0
Rainbow 3,745 0 0.0
NI Women's Coalition 3,024 0 0.0
Workers 2,766 0 0.0
National Front 2,716 0 0.0
Workers 2,480 0 0.0
Cannabis 2,085 0 0.0
People's Labour 1,995 0 0.0
Mebyon Kernow 1,906 0 0.0
Conservative Anti-Euro 1,434 0 0.0
SPGB 1,359 0 0.0
Independent Democracy Means Consulting the People 1,301 0 0.0
Community Representative 1,290 0 0.0
Independent Conservative Referendum Party 1,276 0 0.0
Residents Association 1,263 0 0.0
Social Democrat 1,246 0 0.0
Anti-Sleaze Labour 1,184 0 0.0
WRP 1,178 0 0.0
Real Labour 1,117 0 0.0

Total votes cast: 31,286,284. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown. Labour total includes New Labour and "Labour Time for Change" candidates; Conservative total includes "Loyal Conservative" candidate.

See also MPs elected in the UK general election, 1997.


References

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