Editing Harold Wilson (section)

=== Electoral defeat and resignation ===
By 1969, the Labour Party was suffering serious electoral reverses, and by the turn of 1970 had lost a total of 16 seats in by-elections since the previous general election.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge70.shtml |title=BBC Politics 97 |publisher=BBC |date=18 June 1970 |access-date=26 September 2011 |archive-date=20 January 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120120233721/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/background/pastelec/ge70.shtml |url-status=live}}</ref>

By 1970, the economy was showing signs of improvement, and by May that year, Labour had overtaken the Conservatives in the opinion polls.<ref>''Twentieth-century Britain: a political history'' by W. D. Rubinstein, p. 298.</ref> Wilson responded to this apparent recovery in his government's popularity by calling [[1970 United Kingdom general election|a general election]], but, to the surprise of most observers, was defeated at the polls by the Conservatives under Heath. Most opinion polls had predicted a Labour win, with a poll six days before the election showing a 12.4% Labour lead. Writing in the aftermath of the election, ''The Times'' journalist George Clark wrote that the 1970 contest would be "remembered as the occasion when the people of the United Kingdom hurled the findings of the opinion polls back into the faces of the pollsters and at the voting booths proved them wrong—most of them badly wrong".<ref name="ClarkTimes">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=George |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1970 |date=1970 |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |location=London |page=26 |chapter=The General Election Campaign, 1970}}</ref> Heath and the Conservatives had attacked Wilson over the economy. Towards the end of the campaign, bad trade figures for May added weight to Heath's campaign and he claimed that a Labour victory would result in a further devaluation. Wilson considered Heath's claims "irresponsible" and "damaging to the nation".<ref name="ClarkTimes2">{{cite book |last=Clark |first=George |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1970 |date=1970 |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |location=London |pages=30–31 |chapter=The General Election Campaign, 1970}}</ref> Ultimately, however, the election saw Labour's vote share fall to its lowest since [[1935 United Kingdom general election|1935]].<ref name="RoseTimes">{{cite book |last=Rose |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Rose (political scientist) |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1970 |date=1970 |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |location=London |page=31 |chapter=Voting Trends Surveyed}}</ref> Several prominent Labour figures lost their seats, notably [[George Brown, Baron George-Brown|George Brown]] who was still Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.<ref name="Times70">{{cite book |title=The Times Guide to the House of Commons 1970 |date=1970 |publisher=Times Newspapers Limited |location=London |page=249}}</ref>