418Labour seats
43.2%Largest party’s vote share
71.4%Turnout
Election result
DATEPolling day1 May 1997
01Largest party by seatsLabour
02Seats won418
03Vote share43.2%
04Turnout71.4%
Government outcome
Labour government · majority 178.
About this result
UK general elections are decided constituency by constituency using First Past the Post. Seat totals and national vote shares therefore measure different things.
Historical comparisons also need to allow for changes to constituency boundaries and the number of Commons seats.
Detailed results and source data
Seats won by party
PartySeats
Conservative165
Labour418
Liberal Democrats46
SNP / Plaid Cymru10
Other parties20
House of Commons Library summary grouping. For 1918–2019, SNP and Plaid Cymru are combined in the Library series and smaller parties are grouped as “Other parties”.