UK general election, 1997
| 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.
| 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.
The election has been described as a bloodbath for the ruling Tories. They lost all seats outside of England, and several prominent members, including
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.Overall Picture
Labour won their largest parliamentary majority (179) to date, and the Liberal Democrats more than doubled their number of seats.