The map above shows the results of the 1959 UK General Election. The number of seats won out of 630 by the major parties (and % vote share) were as follows:
Conservatives: 365. Leader and Prime Minister: Harold MacMillan
Labour: 258. Leader: Hugh Gaitskell
Liberal: 6. Leader: Jo Grimond
Notable things about the 1959 election include:
- This is the only time in history a party in its third term in government has managed to increase the number of seats it has.
- Even more amazingly, this came on the heels of the Suez Crisis, which is widely considered Britain’s biggest foreign policy disaster since the Second World War.
- This was the first election where Labour began a domination of Scotland that would last until the 2014 independence referendum.
- This was the first election night to be covered not just by the BBC, but also ITV.
- Margaret Thatcher was elected for the first time in Finchley. She would go on to play a rather interesting role in the years to come…
Other UK Elections:
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