1997 United Kingdom general election in England

1997 United Kingdom general election in England

1 May 1997 (1997-05-01)
All 529 English seats to the House of Commons 265 seats needed for English majority
First party Second party Third party   Leader Tony Blair John Major Paddy Ashdown Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 21 July 1994 27 November 1990[a] 16 July 1988 Leader's seat Sedgefield Huntingdon Yeovil Last election 195 seats, 33.9% 319 seats, 45.5% 10 seats, 19.2% Seats before 196† 324† 9† Seats won 328 165 34 Seat change 132* 159* 25* Popular vote 11,347,882 8,780,881 4,677,565 Percentage 43.5% 33.7% 18.0% Swing 9.6% 11.8% 1.2%
†Notional 1992 results if held on the 1997 boundaries *Indicates boundary change - so this is a notional figure.

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.

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	71.5	6.5

By region

Regional vote shares and changes are sourced from the House of Commons Library.^[2] 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

• 1997 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland
• 1997 United Kingdom general election in Scotland
• 1997 United Kingdom general election in Wales

Notes

References