1997 United Kingdom general election in England
General election held in the United Kingdom
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On Thursday 1 May 1997, the 1997 United Kingdom general election was held in England, to elect all 659 members of the House of Commons, with 529 constituencies being in England. Under Tony Blair, the Labour Party won a landslide majority of English seats, the first time since 1966 that Labour had won an overall majority of English seats.[1] The England result, together with even larger landslide Labour results in Scotland and Wales, gave Labour the biggest majority for any single party since 1931. Blair subsequently formed the first Labour government since 1979, beginning 13 years of Labour government.
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1 May 1997
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All 529 English seats to the House of Commons | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 71.4% ( 6.6 pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| †Notional 1992 results if held on the 1997 boundaries *Indicates boundary change - so this is a notional figure. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 328 | 133 | 1 |  132 | 62.0 | 11,347,882 | 43.5 | 9.6 | |
| Conservative | 165 | 0 | 159 | 159 | 31.2 | 8,780,881 | 33.7 | 11.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 34 | 26 | 1 | 25 | 6.4 | 4,677,565 | 18.0 | 1.3 | |
| Referendum | 0 | New | — | 746,624 | 2.9 | New | |||
| UKIP | 0 | New | — | 103,521 | 0.4 | New | |||
| Independent | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.2 | 69,464 | 0.3 | 0.2 | |
| Green | 0 | 0 | 0 |  | — | 60,013 | 0.2 | 0.4 | |
| Liberal | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 44,516 | 0.2 | | |
| Socialist Labour | 0 | New | — | 44,114 | 0.2 | New | |||
| BNP | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 35,181 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| Natural Law | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 25,958 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
| Independent Labour | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 24,447 | 0.1 | | |
| Speaker | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.2 | 24,447 | 0.1 | | |
| Ind. Conservative | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 18,667 | 0.1 | | |
| Prolife Alliance | 0 | New | — | 13,890 | 0.1 | New | |||
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | — | 42,020 | 0.2 | | |
| Total | 529 | 26,058,712 | 71.4[2] | 6.6 | |||||
By region
Regional vote shares and changes are sourced from the House of Commons Library.[3] The results are based on the regions of England established in 1994; however, the results in Merseyside were recorded separately from North West England, despite being part of the region.
The number of seats for each region that were changed under the fourth periodic review of Westminster constituencies are indicated respectively.
North East England
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 28 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 93.3 | 862,262 | 64.0 | 10.7 | |
| Conservative | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3.3 | 266,294 | 19.8 | 11.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 3.3 | 169,270 | 12.6 | 2.9 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 48,764 | 3.6 | 3.2 | |
| Total | 30 | |
1,346,590 | ||||||
North West England
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 49 | 13 | 0 | 13 | 81.7 | 1,499,518 | 51.5 | 9.0 | |
| Conservative | 9 | 0 | 14 | 14 | 15.0 | 859,436 | 29.5 | 11.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 1.7 | 421,025 | 14.5 | 1.0 | |
| Others | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.7 | 130,730 | 4.5 | 3.3 | |
| Total | 60 | 4 |
2,910,709 | ||||||
Merseyside
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 15 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 93.8 | 442,366 | 64.0 | 10.4 | |
| Conservative | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0.0 | 141,120 | 19.8 | 9.3 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6.2 | 103,152 | 12.6 | 2.4 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 28,158 | 3.6 | 1.3 | |
| Total | 16 | 1 |
714,796 | ||||||
Yorkshire and the Humber
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 47 | 13 | 0 | 13 | 83.9 | 1,339,170 | 51.9 | 7.6 | |
| Conservative | 7 | 0 | 15 | 15 | 12.5 | 720,771 | 28.0 | 10.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3.6 | 412,216 | 16.0 | 0.8 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 106,016 | 4.1 | 3.2 | |
| Total | 56 | 2 |
2,578,173 | ||||||
East Midlands
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 30 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 68.2 | 1,097,639 | 47.8 | 10.4 | |
| Conservative | 14 | 0 | 14 | 15 | 31.8 | 800,958 | 34.9 | 11.7 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 311,264 | 13.6 | 1.7 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 84,889 | 3.7 | 3.0 | |
| Total | 44 | 2 |
2,294,750 | ||||||
West Midlands
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 43 | 15 | 0 | 15 | 72.9 | 1,326,822 | 47.0 | 8.2 | |
| Conservative | 14 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 23.7 | 953,465 | 33.7 | 11.0 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.7 | 388,807 | 13.8 | 1.3 | |
| Others | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.7 | 156,731 | 5.5 | 4.1 | |
| Total | 59 | 1 |
2,825,825 | ||||||
East of England
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Conservative | 33 | 0 | 19 | 19 | 58.9 | 1,164,777 | 39.5 | 13.0 | |
| Labour | 22 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 39.3 | 1,137,637 | 38.6 | 12.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1.8 | 504,416 | 17.1 | 2.7 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 140,337 | 4.8 | 3.5 | |
| Total | 56 | 5 |
2,947,167 | ||||||
Greater London
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Labour | 57 | 25 | 0 | 25 | 77.0 | 1,643,329 | 49.5 | 12.4 | |
| Conservative | 11 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 14.9 | 1,036,082 | 31.2 | 14.1 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 6 | 5 | 0 | 5 | 8.1 | 485,511 | 14.6 | 1.3 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 156,126 | 4.7 | 3.0 | |
| Total | 74 | 10 |
3,321,048 | ||||||
Greater London
South East England
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Conservative | 54 | 0 | 25 | 25 | 65.1 | 1,817,343 | 41.9 | 13.1 | |
| Labour | 22 | 18 | 0 | 18 | 26.5 | 1,264,778 | 29.1 | 10.2 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 7 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 8.4 | 1,012,418 | 23.3 | 1.4 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 247,069 | 5.7 | 4.2 | |
| Total | 83 | 5 |
4,341,608 | ||||||
South West England
| Party | Seats | Aggregate Votes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | Gains | Losses | Net | Of all (%) | Total | Of all (%) | Difference | ||
| Conservative | 22 | 0 | 17 | 17 | 43.1 | 1,020,635 | 36.7 | 10.8 | |
| Liberal Democrats | 14 | 8 | 0 | 8 | 27.5 | 869,486 | 31.3 | 0.1 | |
| Labour | 15 | 9 | 0 | 9 | 29.4 | 734,361 | 26.4 | 7.2 | |
| Others | 0 | 0 | 0 | | 0.0 | 153,564 | 5.5 | 3.7 | |
| Total | 51 | 3 |
2,778,046 | ||||||
See also
Notes
- Major resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party on 22 June 1995 to face critics in his party and government, and was re-elected as Leader on 4 July 1995