This is a list of Members of Parliament (MPs) elected in the October 1974 general election, held on 10 October. This Parliament was dissolved in 1979.

Composition

These representative diagrams show the composition of the parties in the October 1974 general election. Composition of the House of Commons following the October 1974 UK general election

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. This is a list of

Members of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

elected to the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

in October 1974 general election, held on 10 October. This was the second general election to be held that year. The Parliament lasted until 1979. Notable newcomers to the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

included Margaret Jackson (later Margaret Beckett),

David Penhaligon David Charles Penhaligon (6 June 1944 – 22 December 1986) was a British politician from Cornwall who was Liberal Member of Parliament for the constituency of Truro from 1974–86. He was a popular figure in all parties and had potential to ...

Bryan Gould Bryan Charles Gould (born 11 February 1939) is a New Zealand-born British former politician and diplomat. He served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 to 1979, and again from 1983 to 1994. He was a member of the Labour Party's Shadow Ca ...

, Margaret Bain (later Margaret Ewing), Helene Hayman and

Ann Taylor Ann or Anne Taylor may refer to: *Ann Taylor (writer, born 1757) (1757–1830), English writer *Ann Taylor (poet) (1782–1866), English poet and children's writer, daughter of the above *Ann Taylor (actress) (born 1936), British actress, hostess a ...

. __NOTOC__

By-elections

See the

list of United Kingdom by-elections The list of by-elections in the United Kingdom is divided chronologically by parliament: Parliament of the United Kingdom *List of United Kingdom by-elections (1801–1806) * List of United Kingdom by-elections (1806–1818) * List of United King ...

. Four seats were vacant when Parliament was dissolved preparatory to the 1979 general election: *Abingdon – Airey Neave (Con) *Batley and Morley –

Alfred Broughton Sir Alfred Davies Devonsher Broughton (18 October 1902 – 2 April 1979) was a British Labour Party politician. Early life Broughton was educated at Rossall School, Downing College, Cambridge and the London Hospital and became a doctor ...

(Lab) *Chipping Barnet –

Reginald Maudling Reginald Maudling (7 March 1917 – 14 February 1979) was a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1962 to 1964 and as Home Secretary from 1970 to 1972. From 1955 until the late 1960s, he was spoken of as a prospecti ...

(Con) *North East Derbyshire – Tom Swain (Lab) In addition,

Maurice Orbach Maurice Orbach (13 July 190224 April 1979) was a British Labour Party politician, who served the Willesden East (1945-1959) and Stockport South (1964-1979) constituencies. Background Born to a Jewish family, Orbach was educated at technica ...

(Labour MP for Stockport South) died on 24 April, after dissolution but before the general election.

Defections

* 14 April 1976:

John Stonehouse John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 192514 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and cabinet minister under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death i ...

(

Walsall North Walsall North is a constituency created in 1955 represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2017 by Eddie Hughes, a member of the Conservative Party. The local electorate returned a Labour MP in the seat's first seventeen ...

) defects from Labour to

English National Party English National Party has been the name of various political parties of England, which have commonly called for a separate parliament for England. The original ENP History The English National Party (ENP) was founded as the John Hampden New ...

* 26 July 1976: James Sillars ( Ayrshire South) and John Robertson ( Paisley) resign from Labour Party and sit as Scottish Labour *1977–1978: The

Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party (VUPP), informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1972 and 1978. Led by William Craig, the party emerged from a split in the Ulster Unio ...

fell apart. William Craig ( East Belfast) and Robert Bradford ( South Belfast) joined the

Ulster Unionist Party The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) is a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1905, emerging from the Irish Unionist Alliance in Ulster. Under Edward Carson, it led unionist opposition to the Irish Home Rule m ...

. John Dunlop joined the

United Ulster Unionist Party The United Ulster Unionist Party (UUUP) was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984. It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party in the late 1970s. Vanguard had traditional ...

. *1977:

James Kilfedder Sir James Alexander Kilfedder (16 July 1928 – 20 March 1995), usually known as Sir Jim Kilfedder, was a Northern Irish unionist politician. Early life Jim Kilfedder born in Kinlough, a village in the north of County Leitrim in what was the ...

( North Down) left the

and sat as an independent unionist.

Progression of government majority and party totals

The government voting total is the total number of Labour MPs, minus the Labour Deputy Speakers (two until 3 Feb 1976, one from that date). The opposition voting total is the total number of other MPs, minus the Speaker and the Conservative Deputy Speakers (one until 3 Feb 1976, two from that date). The majority is the difference between the former and the latter. The Conservatives began with 276 MPs; the figure of 277 given above includes the Speaker

Selwyn Lloyd John Selwyn Brooke Lloyd, Baron Selwyn-Lloyd, (28 July 1904 – 18 May 1978) was a British politician. Born and raised in Cheshire, he was an active Liberal as a young man in the 1920s. In the following decade, he practised as a barrister and ...

. In the Majority column, figures in brackets denote the majority the Lib-Lab pact had during its time of operation. {{DEFAULTSORT:List of MPs elected in the 1974 10 United Kingdom general election 1974 10 October 1974 United Kingdom general election Lists of UK MPs 1974–1979

UK MPs Following is a (currently incomplete) list of past United Kingdom MPs in alphabetical order. __NOTOC__ A ''See List of United Kingdom MPs: A'' B ''See List of United Kingdom MPs: B'' C ''See List of United Kingdom MPs: C'' D ''See Lis ...

Lists of UK MPs October 1974–1979