1966 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1966 United Kingdom general election

31 March 1966

All 71 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Harold Wilson Edward Heath Jo Grimond
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Last election 43 seats, 48.7% 24 seats, 40.6% 4 seats, 7.6%
Seats won 46 20 5
Seat change 3 4 1
Popular vote 1,273,916 960,675 172,447
Percentage 49.9% 37.6% 6.8%
Swing 1.2% 3.0% 0.8%

Results of the 1966 election in Scotland
  Conservative/Unionist
  Labour
  Liberal

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday, 31 March 1966, and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested. The election took place only 17 months after the 1964 United Kingdom general election, with incumbent Prime Minister Harold Wilson deciding to call a snap election since his government had an unworkably small majority of only four MPs. Combined with results from across the UK, the result was a landslide victory for Wilson's Labour Party.

The election was first in which the Scottish Conservatives stood for election as a integral part of the Conservative Party, with the former Unionist Party (which had been aligned with, but separate from, the Conservatives), having merged into the Tories in April 1965. Both Labour and Liberal parties gained seats from the newly merged Conservatives at the election.