House of Commons — general election

United Kingdom elections · 1974-02-28 · held

House of Commons: 635 seats in the recorded elected component.

Results: final · complete coverage · Commons Library reported national vote total (31,340,162); source group definitions retained

Turnout: 78.8%

Only House of Commons seats are counted; the upper chamber has a separate institutional history. Seat totals include unopposed returns and abstentionist MPs. Historic constituencies, franchise and territory differ from today. The primary Commons Library historical series takes precedence over conflicting secondary counts. Results use its published categories, not invented party-by-party detail. The CON series includes source-grouped National/National Liberal/National Labour allies in specified historical years; the Liberal series includes Coalition Liberal in 1918, National Liberal in 1922 and Independent Liberal in 1931. SNP and Plaid Cymru remain a labelled source aggregate, not a claimed alliance. Explicit Northern Ireland parties from 1974 are deducted once from UK Other and use the UK denominator. Shares are calculated from the exact source vote totals; historical published rounded percentages may differ. The Speaker follows the source convention: former party through 1992, Other from 1997. Turnout follows the source electorate convention, excluding unopposed contests where relevant.