Ymgyrchu! - The Ballot Box - Elections - 1966 and the Labour Party

1966 General Election and the Labour Party

1966 General Election results in Wales

Labour 32

Conservative 03

Liberals 01

The Labour Representation Committee was established in 1900 and in the same year two members were elected to Parliament to represent the Committee. The name was changed in 1906 to the Labour Party and by this time the party had 29 members in Parliament. Ramsay MacDonald was the Prime Minister during the first two Labour governments, in 1923-24 and then from 1929 to 1931.

The Labour Party won a great victory in the 1945 General Election under the leadership of Clement Attlee, but the Conservatives regained power after the 1951 General Election. After 13 years as the main opposition party the Labour Party won the 1964 General Election, but with a very small majority.

Elystan Morgan Election Poster, 1966 (32K)

The Labour Party's success was enhanced and strengthened in the 1966 General Election when 61% of the Welsh electorate voted for it. The Party won 32 of the 36 Welsh seats, the Liberal Party holding on to one seat and the Conservative Party winning three. The Labour Party's vote rose to 836,100, an increase of 26,000 on the General Election two years previously. Other parties lost votes, the Conservatives in total lost 25,000, the Liberals 17,000 and Plaid Cymru 8,000 votes.

The Labour Party and the Conservative Party put forward a candidate in every constituency in Wales, and also standing were 11 Liberals, 20 Plaid Cymru candidates and 8 Communists. Labour managed to gain four extra seats, Conwy, Cardiff North and Monmouth, which were held by the Conservatives, and Ceredigion, which was taken from the Liberals.

A Liberal MP had represented Ceredigion for nearly a century until Elystan Morgan won the seat for the Labour Party in 1966, with only a majority of 532. Elystan Morgan was a former member of Plaid Cymru but joined Labour because he believed that Wales could only flourish through the Labour Party.

Following the 1966 election the Labour Party stayed in power until 1970 under the leadership of Harold Wilson. It was back in power in 1974, but in the 1979 General Election Labour was beaten by the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher.

General Election 1906 and the Liberal Party
General Election 1966 and the Labour Party
General Election 1983 and the Conservative Party
The National Assembly for Wales Election 1999 and Plaid Cymru / The Party of Wales

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