October 1974 United Kingdom general election in Scotland

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 10 October 1974 and all 71 seats in Scotland were contested.^[1][2] This election was held just seven months after the previous general election, held in February 1974, had led to a hung parliament. Following the inconclusive nature of coalition talks between the Conservatives and other parties such as the Liberals and the Ulster Unionists, the Labour Leader Harold Wilson had gone on to form a minority government. After 8 months, Wilson felt he had demonstrated enough progress to win a majority, and called a second election.

In Scotland the Conservatives saw an 8.2% drop in support, and lost 5 seats. Although the Labour Party also saw a slight decline in vote share, it was able to pick up one additional seat. The SNP became the second largest party in Scotland by popular vote for the first time in its history: with 30% of the Scottish popular vote and 11 of Scotland's 71 seats this was the party's most successful general election result until the 2015 election.

When combined with results from across the United Kingdom the election resulted in Labour winning a wafer-thin majority of three seats, the narrowest in modern British history.

List of MPs for constituencies in Scotland (October 1974–1979)