1966 United Kingdom general election

1966 United Kingdom general election

← 1964 31 March 1966 1970 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 630 seats in the House of Commons 316 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	75.8% (1.3 pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond Party Labour Conservative Liberal Leader since 14 February 1963 28 July 1965 5 November 1956 Leader's seat Huyton Bexley Orkney and Shetland Last election 317 seats, 44.1% 304 seats, 43.4% 9 seats, 11.2% Seats won 364[note 1] 253 12 Seat change 47 51 3 Popular vote 13,096,951 11,418,433 2,327,533 Percentage 48.0% 41.9% 8.5% Swing 3.9% 1.5% 2.7%
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Harold Wilson Labour Prime Minister after election Harold Wilson Labour

The 1966 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 31 March 1966. The result was a landslide victory for the Labour Party led by incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson.

Wilson decided to call a snap election since his government, elected a mere 17 months previously, in 1964, had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. The Labour government was returned following this snap election with a much larger majority of 98 seats. This was the last British general election in which the voting age was 21; Wilson's government passed an amendment to the Representation of the People Act in 1969 to include eligibility to vote at age 18, which was in place for the next general election in 1970.

This was the only election between 1945 and 1997 in which the Labour Party won a workable majority sustainable to last a full term. In the next seven general elections, the Labour Party would win a majority of seats only once (October 1974) and would lose five elections to the Conservatives. This election also noted the Labour Party achieving its third-highest vote-share (48%) and second largest total number of votes in history (the largest vote-share being the 49.7% achieved in the 1945 election).

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