1983 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

1983 United Kingdom general election

9 June 1983

All 72 Scottish seats to the House of Commons
Turnout72.7%, Decrease4.14%
  First party Second party
 
Michael Foot (1981).jpg
Margaret Thatcher (1983).jpg
Leader Michael Foot Margaret Thatcher
Party Labour Conservative
Leader since 10 November 1980 11 February 1975
Last election 44 seats, 41.5% 22 seats, 31.4%
Seats won 41 21
Seat change Decrease3 Decrease1
Popular vote 990,654 801,487
Percentage 35.1% 28.4%
Swing Decrease6.5% Decrease3.0%

  Third party Fourth party
 
DavidSteel1987 cropped.jpg
Roy Jenkins 1977 (cropped).jpg
Winnie_Ewing_and_Gordon_Wilson_Brussels_(cropped).jpg
Leader Gordon Wilson
Party Alliance SNP
Leader since
15 September 1979
Last election 3 seats, 9.0% 2 seats, 17.3%
Seats won 8 2
Seat change Increase5 Steady
Popular vote 692,634 331,975
Percentage 24.5% 11.8%
Swing Increase15.5% Decrease5.5%

Results of the 1983 election in Scotland

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 9 June 1983 and all 72 seats in Scotland were contested.[1]

The Labour Party won 41 seats, with the Conservative Party winning 21, the SDP–Liberal Alliance winning eight and the Scottish National Party winning two.[2][3]

Results

Party Seats Seats
change
Votes % %
change
Labour 41 Decrease3 990,654 35.1 Decrease6.5
Conservative 21 Decrease1 801,487 28.4 Decrease3.0
Alliance 8 Increase5 692,634 24.5 Increase15.5
SNP 2 Steady 331,975 11.8 Decrease5.5
Other 0 Steady 7,830 0.3 Increase0.2
Turnout: 2,824,580 72.7
Popular vote
Labour
35.07%
Conservative
28.38%
Alliance
24.52%
SNP
11.75%
Other
0.28%
Parliament seats
Labour
56.94%
Conservative
29.17%
Alliance
11.11%
SNP
2.78%

See also

References

  1. ^ "Commons results report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 November 2020.
  2. ^ Macwhirter, Iain (2014). Road to Referendum: The Essential Guide to the Scottish Referendum. Cargo Publishing. ISBN 978-1-908885-95-1.
  3. ^ Letters (16 December 2021). "Scottish votes haven't influenced an English election result in 40 years". The National. Retrieved 2 January 2021. In 1983, Margaret Thatcher won 387 seats out of 650, a majority of 144. Labour secured 41 of the 72 seats in Scotland, the Tories 21, the SDP-Liberal Alliance 8 and the SNP 2. Obviously Scotland's 72 seats would not have influenced the outcome either way.