List of MPs elected in the February 1974 United Kingdom general election
This is a list of members of Parliament elected at the February 1974 general election, held on 28 February. This was the first of two general elections to be held that year. Parliament convened on 12 March 1974 at the Palace of Westminster by Queen Elizabeth II.[1] It was dissolved just over six months later on 20 September 1974, making it the shortest UK parliament in history and the shortest parliament to sit at Westminster since 1681.[2]
| February–October 1974 Parliament of the United Kingdom | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||
 Palace of Westminster in 1973 | |||||
| Overview | |||||
| Legislative body | Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||||
| Term | 12 March 1974 – 20 September 1974 | ||||
| Election | February 1974 United Kingdom general election | ||||
| Government | Third Wilson ministry | ||||
| House of Commons | |||||
| Members | 635 | ||||
| Speaker | Selwyn Lloyd | ||||
| Leader | Edward Short | ||||
| Prime Minister | Harold Wilson | ||||
| Leader of the Opposition | Edward Heath | ||||
| Third-party leader | Jeremy Thorpe | ||||
| House of Lords | |||||
| Lord Chancellor | Baron Elwyn-Jones | ||||
Composition
These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the February 1974 general election.
Note: The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru sit together as a party group. This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time.
| Affiliation | Members | |
| Labour Party | 301 | |
| Conservative Party | 297 | |
| Liberal Party | 14 | |
| Scottish National Party | 7 | |
| Ulster Unionist Party | 7 | |
| Plaid Cymru | 2 | |
| Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party | 3 | |
| Democratic Unionist Party | 1 | |
| Social Democratic and Labour Party | 1 | |
| Independent Labour | 1 | |
| Democratic Labour | 1 | |
| Total | 635 | |
| Notional government majority | Minority (−10) | |
| Effective government majority | Minority (−17) | |
| Table of contents:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z By-election |
By-election
See the list of United Kingdom by-elections.
Defections
- 9 July: Greenwich, Woolwich East--Christopher Mayhew defected from Labour to the Liberals
See also
- Category:UK MPs 1974
References
- "THE QUEEN'S SPEECH". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). United Kingdom: House of Lords. 12 March 1974. col. 7–12.
- Smith, Alastair (19 July 2004). Election Timing. Cambridge University Press. p. 194. ISBN 0521833639.