355 © The Author(s) 2021 A. S. Roe-Crines, T. Heppell (eds.), Policies and Politics Under Prime Minister Edward Heath, Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53673-2_15 CHAPTER 15 Who Governs? The General Election Defeats of 1974 Andrew S. Roe-Crines The aim of this chapter is to consider the performance of the Conservative Party in the General Elections of 1974. Having secured 13,145,123 votes on a 46.4 percent vote share at the General Election of June 1970 (which provided them with 330 parliamentary seats), the Conservative Party would fall to 11,872,180 votes (a 37.9 percent vote share and 297 parlia- mentary seats) at the General Election of February 1974 (Butler and Pinto-Duschinsky 1971; Butler and Kavanagh 1974). A further erosion in the Conservative vote would occur at the General Election of October 1974, as they fell to 277 parliamentary seats on a 35.8 percent vote share and 10,464,817 votes (Butler and Kavanagh 1975). In parliamentary terms, their respective electoral reversals were marginal, that is, the Labour Party entered government as a minority administration in March 1974 and then with a majority of three after the October General Election. This reﬂected the fact that voters were displaying their scepticism towards the two main parties. The combined Conservative-Labour vote at the General A. S. Roe-Crines (*) University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK e-mail: a.s.crines@liverpool.ac.uk