UK general election, 1970

The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on June 18, 1970, and resulted in a surprise loss of power for Labour under Harold Wilson, who was replaced as Prime Minister by the Conservative leader, Edward Heath. The election was also a setback for the Liberal Party under its new leader Jeremy Thorpe, which lost half its seats. The Conservatives, when combined with the Ulster Unionists, held a majority of 31 over all other parties.

Most opinion polls prior to the election had predicted a comfortable Labour victory, and had put Labour 12.4% ahead of the Conservatives. However on the day, a late swing put the Conservatives 3.4% ahead.

Party	Votes	Seats	Loss/Gain	Share of Vote (%)
Conservative	13,145,123	330	+ 77	46.4
Labour	12,208,758	288	- 76	43.1
Liberal	2,117,035	6	- 6	7.5
SNP	306,802	1	+ 1	1.1
Plaid Cymru	175,016	0		0.6
Unity	140,930	2	+ 2	0.4
Independent	39,264	0		0.1
Communist	37,970	0		0.1
Protestant Unionist	35,303	1	+ 1	0.1
Republican Labour	30,649	1		0.1
Independent Labour	24,685	0		0.1
Independent Conservative	24,014	0		0.1
Democratic	15,292	0		0.1
National Democratic (England)	14,276	0		0.1
National Front	11,449	0		0.0
National Democratic (NI)	10,349	0		0.0
Vectis National	1,607	0		0.0
Independent Liberal	1,456	0		0.0

Total votes cast: 28,305,534. All parties with more than 1,100 votes listed. The Conservative figure includes 8 Ulster Unionists.