This is a list of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in the 1979 general election, held on 3 May. This Parliament was dissolved in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

. Parliament, which consists of the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons, was convened on Tuesday 15 May 1979 at the

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parli ...

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. She was queen ...

Of the 77 newcomers, two were women (

Sheila Faith Irene Sheila Faith (née Book; 3 June 1928 – 28 September 2014) was a British politician and dental surgeon. She served one term each in the House of Commons and European Parliament as a Conservative. She was a native of Newcastle upon Tyne an ...

and Sheila Wright). In total, the Parliament had 19 female members (8 Conservative, 11 Labour), fewer than any post-war parliament before or since, with the sole exception of 1951. It was the election from which Margaret Thatcher, the incumbent Conservative Party leader became Prime Minister, the first female head of government in the United Kingdom and Europe.

Composition

These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the 1979 general election. House of Commons elected members, 1979

Note: The Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru sit together as a party group. This is not the official seating plan of the House of Commons, which has five rows of benches on each side, with the government party to the right of the Speaker and opposition parties to the left, but with room for only around two-thirds of MPs to sit at any one time. __NOTOC__

By-elections

See the list of United Kingdom by-elections. Two seats were vacant when Parliament was dissolved preparatory to the

1983 general election The following elections occurred in the year 1983. Africa * 1983 Cameroonian parliamentary election * 1983 Equatorial Guinean legislative election * 1983 Kenyan general election * 1983 Malagasy parliamentary election * 1983 Malawian general e ...

: *Cardiff, North-West – Michael Roberts (Con) died 10 February 1983 *Rhondda – Alec Jones (Lab) died 20 March 1983

References

{{1979 United Kingdom general election

1979 Events January * January 1 ** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...

1979 United Kingdom general election Lists of UK MPs 1979–1983 List UK MPs