Only just, and it doesn't end too well for him (worse for Thorpe, obviously, but still):
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The
1974 United Kingdom general election took place on October 17, 1974. The incumbent Labour government of Harold Wilson sought a fourth election victory, having been elected in 1964 and reelected in 1966 and 1970.
The previous 1970 election had resulted, unexpectedly, in only a narrow victory for Prime Minister Wilson, who won a bare 318-seat majority, two more than necessary to command a majority in the Commons. Much like the 1964 victory, the resulting government was fragile, with many suspecting Wilson would attempt to hold another snap election like in 1966 in order to once again form a stable majority. However, continually tepid economic performances and controversial actions by trade unions kept Labour's polling numbers poor, and so Wilson continued to govern with his small majority.
Labour and the Liberals retained the same leadership, and were still led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who had become the first prime minister since 1820 to lead his government to a third successive victory, and Jeremy Thorpe, respectively. However the Conservatives had changed leadership; the second successive defeat of Heath in 1970 and widespread dissatisfaction with his leadership in various corners of the party led to his ousting in 1971; a leadership challenge by Enoch Powell, though failing, forced Heath to stand down and allowed Deputy Leader and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald Maudling to rise to party leadership. Maudling managed to unite the disparate factions of the party to prepare to take Wilson down in the next election.
As part of these poor polling numbers, a number of by-election defeats afflicted the government; losing them to both the Conservatives and the typically strong by-election performers of the Liberals, this further weakened the Labour government; in late 1973 this reached the point of actually costing Labour its majority. This exposed the government to a potential defeat in a vote of no confidence; with polling indicating potential good results for the Liberal and Conservative Parties, many called for such a vote. However, the first attempt occured in February 1974, while Labour still held 315 seats; abstentions, vacancies, and absences on both sides resulted in the vote going 312-310 in favour of the government, with the Conservatives, Liberals, and nationalist parties voting against the government.
Already looking at the possibility of another confidence vote, Harold Wilson offered to negotiate a potential Lib-Lab pact, and Jeremy Thorpe reluctantly agreed, provided the Liberals' demands were met. While polling indicated favorable numbers for the Liberals, the first-past-the-post system of seat allocation offered few seats relative to vote share for the Liberals; and so a key part of the party's plank was the institution of electoral reform to better the party's opportunity to win representation. Following the confidence vote, Wilson was much more willing to engage with the Liberals in talks, and offered to appoint Thorpe Deputy Prime Minister, give ministries to Liberals, and pursue electoral reform. Thorpe and the Liberals provisionally agreed, but would first negotiate the precise manner of electoral reform to be implemented. The deal was not formal, but precluded any snap election from taking place in the immediate future.
Despite the highly uncertain and completely provisional nature of the agreement, the possibility of achieving the Liberal dream brought much attention to the party and Jeremy Thorpe in particular. The party's hope was to parlay this into positive press; however, this turned out very different. Thorpe, being the party's photogenic leader, received much of that press attention, and tabloid newspapers soon discovered evidence of a checkered homosexual relationship with one Norman Scott. This quickly became a sensational news story that created much bad publicity for the Liberals in general and Thorpe in particular, who vehemently denied being gay and the allegations of abuse and even being in the early stages of conspiring to murder Scott. Labour moved to do damage control, fearing being caught in the blast of the scandal despite never having formally agreed to a coalition with the Liberals; these attempts were undermined when evidence, later discovered to have been fabricated, emerged that showed some Labour figures - most notably Foreign Secretary James Callaghan - had known of the Norman Scott affair, which caused them to denounce the Liberals further. However, this attempt at damage control offended some Liberals, who quickly became split between a faction that favored cutting ties with Thorpe and Labour and calling and voting for a vote of no confidence, and a faction that feared the sliding poll numbers and favored staying with Labour to avoid an election. Many would call for Thorpe's ouster from the Liberal leadership.
This created a chaotic atmosphere in Westminster, where the government's viability returned to being questionable; in mid-September, Maudling called another vote of no confidence, and with several addtional by-elections losses for Labour since the last vote and some Liberals voting against the government, it passed by a narrow margin, 311 for to 308 against, triggering an early election which was scheduled for October 17, 1974. The result was widely predicted; with sluggish economic growth, union troubles, and the Thorpe affair all clouds hanging over the government, Maudling's Conservative Party easily won the election, winning a majority of 342 seats on 47.1%; Labour won 264 seats and 41.1% of the vote, a major downturn, while the Liberals lost half their seats (including Thorpe's own seat of North Devon) and fell to 6.2% of the vote. Maudling registered what was at the time the largest amount of votes a single party had garnered in a single election, and was appointed Prime Minister the next day, ending 10 years of Labour government. Wilson and Thorpe would both leave their respective party leaderships within the year; Wilson, whose health had already been declining, resigned, and in a fierce contest saw Barbara Castle, former First Secretary of State, elected Leader of the Labour Party; Thorpe, having lost his seat, would be unceremoniously ousted and replaced with David Steel. Maudling himself also would not make it to the end of 1975, being forced to resign as Prime Minister in November 1975.
