Why did the Labour Party win the 1964 election?

Question 1

When Macmillan resigned in 1963 what was the opinion poll lead of Labour and the approval rating of Wilson?

Answer 1

12% and 60%

Question 2

What was the result of the October 1964 election?

Answer 2

The Conservatives won 12 million votes and 304 seats

Labour won 12.2 million votes and 317 seats

Question 3

How many seats did the Conservatives lose?

Answer 3

61

Question 4

How many votes did Labour lose?

Answer 4

10,000

Question 5

What did Labour appear to be but what was the case?

Answer 5

Much more united than it had been in either 1955 or 1959 but their divisions over nuclear weapons, Europe, and nationalism had not disappeared

Question 6

What was Wilson able to do?

Answer 6

Gloss over the divisions by presenting the party as modern, dynamic, and progressive

Question 7

What did the manifesto promise?

Answer 7

Faster economic growth and full employment

Improved welfare and health services

Better housing

Comprehensive education

Question 8

What did Wilson pledge?

Answer 8

To create a ‘Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution’

Question 9

What did Wilson personify?

Answer 9

A new, progressive Britain in which talented people from humble backgrounds succeed

Question 10

What did he stress and how?

Answer 10

How different he was from the old Etonians who led the Tory Party by cultivating his image as a person of the people

Question 11

What did he appear to be?

Answer 11

The kind of classless professional the country needed to tackle its economic difficulties

Question 12

What did voters blame the Conservatives for, what did the Tories not seem to have, and what did Labour claim?

Answer 12

The growing economic problems

Answers to the problems of rising unemployment, inflation, industrial unrest, and the growing disparity in wealth between the regions of Britain

That the Tories had presided over ‘thirteen wasted years’

Question 13

What did the Conservatives seem and why?

Answer 13

Out of touch with a modern democratic society:
Douglas-Home was an aristocrat and at 60 years old he appeared no match for the 47-year old Wilson

Tories were implicated in ‘sex scandals’

Question 14

What was the electorate given the impression of?

Answer 14

That the Tories were an old-fashioned, self-indulgent elite

Question 15

Who benefited from the growing unpopularity of the Conservatives and why?

Answer 15

The Liberals because many middle-class voters were not prepared to vote for the Labour party

Question 16

Where was this shown?

Answer 16

In the by-election result in Orpington in 1962, when a Conservative majority of 14,700 was overturned by the Liberal candidate who won with a majority of 7850

Question 17

What did the Liberal revival bring them and what were they able to do?

Answer 17

More publicity, increased funding, and talented recruits

Contest 365 seats compared with 216 in 1959

Question 18

What was the outcome of the election for the Liberals and what did they help to do?

Answer 18

Gained only three more seats but almost doubled their vote to 3 million

Hand victory to Labour in many seats: Dover, Wellingborough, and Bolton East

Question 19

What encouraged more liberal attitudes?

Answer 19

The cultural changes of the decade

Question 20

What did grammar schools give?

Answer 20

Bright pupils from underprivileged backgrounds unprecedented opportunities to enter universities and careers

Question 21

What did grammar schools create?

Answer 21

A climate in which people aspired to create a new, modern, classless Britain run with professional competence

Question 22

How did Labour benefit?

Answer 22

The party was significantly more popular with voters under the age of 44

Question 23

How would the Conservatives have won the election?

Answer 23

If 900 voters in eight constituencies had voted Tory or not voted at all

Question 24

What does the outcome of the election suggest?

Answer 24

That the election was more a rejection of the Conservatives than an endorsement of Labour

Question 25

What was whittled away?

Answer 25

The opinion poll lead that Labour had enjoyed at the Profumo scandal in June 1963, when they were 20% ahead of the Tories

Question 26

How does the leadership of Douglas-Home explain the close victory?

Answer 26

He turned out to be a more effective prime minister than many expected

He appeared modest, decent, and trustworthy, while Wilson had a reputation for being cunning

Question 27

What did Reginald Maudling do in 1963?

Answer 27

Cut taxes in the budget

Question 28

What was the impact of the tax cut?

Answer 28

The cuts contributed to a trade deficit of £800 million

Earnings rose and the number of employed people dropped from almost 900,000 in February 1963 to 300,000 by July 1964

The Conservatives enjoyed a 4% lead in September and 3.6% in October (Daily Express)

Question 29

What did many voters distrust and what was the impact?

Answer 29

Labour and its links to the trade unions

Strikes against the government’s pay policies reduced its support

Question 30

How do attitudes to Labour explain the close victory?

Answer 30

The party’s internal divisions had not been fully resolved, and middle-class voters disliked its commitment to nationalism

Some voters doubted their ability to handle crises, especially international problems

Question 31

Where did the party fare less well?

Answer 31

In some working-class areas in the Midlands where the Conservatives picked up votes because of immigration

Question 32

What was the result in Smethwick?

Answer 32

The Conservative candidate, who ran an overtly racist campaign, succeeded in turning a 3500 Labour majority into a Tory victory by 1700 votes