UK general election, 1997

The result declared for the constituency of Winchester showed a margin of victory of just 2 votes for the Liberal Democrats. The defeated Conservative candidate challenged the result on the grounds that errors by election officials (failures to stamp certain votes) had changed the result, forcing a by-election on 20 November which was won by the Liberal Democrats with a much larger majority, causing much recrimination in the Conservative Party about the choice to challenge the original result.

Overall Picture

The election has been described as a bloodbath for the ruling Tories. They lost all seats outside of England, and several prominent members, including

• Michael Portillo - Secretary of State for Defence
• Malcolm Rifkind - Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
• Ian Lang - Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
• Michael Forsyth - Secretary of State for Scotland.
• William Waldegrave - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
• Tony Newton - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
• Roger Freeman - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
• Marcus Fox - chairman of the 1922 committee
• Norman Lamont - Former Chancellor of the Exchequer and prominent Eurosceptic
• David Mellor - Former Secretary of State for National Heritage

The Referendum Party came fourth with about 800,000 votes on a platform of seeking a referendum on the relationship with the European Union and may have taken some votes from the Conservatives; the next six parties only stood in one of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

An independent, Martin Bell, won the Tatton seat, where incumbent MP Neil Hamilton was facing charges of having taken cash for questions, but was determined to stand nonetheless. The Labour and Liberal Democrat candidates withdrew in order for Bell to contest the seat.

Results

The election was fought under new boundaries, with an additional 8 seats across the UK. Changes listed here are from the notional 1992 result had it been fought on those boundaries. These notional results were used by all media organisations at the time.

Party	Votes	Seats	Loss/Gain	Share of Vote (%)
Labour	13,518,167	418	+ 145	45.2
Conservative	9,600,774	165	- 178	30.7
Liberal Democrats	5,242,947	46	+ 28	16.8
Referendum	811,849	0		2.6
SNP	621,550	6	+ 3	2.0
Ulster Unionist	258,349	10	+ 1	0.8
SDLP	190,814	3	- 1	0.6
Plaid Cymru	161,030	4		0.5
Sinn Fein	126,921	2	+ 2	0.4
Democratic Unionist	107,348	2	- 2	0.3
UK Independence	105,722	0		0.3
Green	63,991	0		0.3
Alliance (NI)	62,972	0		0.2
Socialist Labour	52,109	0		0.2
Liberal	45,166	0		0.1
Independent	41,367	1	+1	0.1
BNP	35,832	0		0.1
Natural Law	30,604	0		0.1
The Speaker	23,969	1	+1	0.1
Prolife Alliance	19,332	0		0.1
UK Unionist	12,817	1	+1	0.0
Progressive Unionist	10,928	0		0.0
National Democrat	10,829	0		0.0
Socialist	9,906	0		0.0
Scottish Socialist	9,740	0		0.0
Independent Labour	9,233	0		0.0
Independent Conservative	8,608	0		0.0
Monster Raving Loony	7,906	0		0.0
Rainbow	3,745	0		0.0
NI Women's Coalition	3,024	0		0.0
Workers	2,766	0		0.0
National Front	2,716	0		0.0
Workers	2,480	0		0.0
Cannabis	2,085	0		0.0
People's Labour	1,995	0		0.0
Mebyon Kernow	1,906	0		0.0
Conservative Anti-Euro	1,434	0		0.0
SPGB	1,359	0		0.0
Independent Democracy Means Consulting the People	1,301	0		0.0
Community Representative	1,290	0		0.0
Independent Conservative Referendum Party	1,276	0		0.0
Residents Association	1,263	0		0.0
Social Democrat	1,246	0		0.0
Anti-Sleaze Labour	1,184	0		0.0
WRP	1,178	0		0.0
Real Labour	1,117	0		0.0

Total votes cast: 31,286,284. All parties with more than 1,000 votes shown. Labour total includes New Labour and "Labour Time for Change" candidates; Conservative total includes candidates in Northern Ireland (excluded in some lists) and "Loyal Conservative" candidate.

The Popular Unionist MP elected in 1992 died in 1995 and the party folded shortly afterwards.

See also MPs elected in the UK general election, 1997.
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