There was a General Election on 28th February 1974. Labour won 301 seats to the Tories 297 and Harold Wilson headed a minority Labour Government. The turnout was 78.8% because 45 years ago, now as then, it was a time of national crisis. The miners overtime ban which had led to a 3 day working week was about to turn into a strike. The Tory Prime Minister Heath called an Election on who governed Britain, the Tories or the Unions. He lost.
He could of course have called it earlier but below is an extract from Tony Benn’s Diary on campaigning in December 1973 when he knew an Election was imminent.
Friday 7th December 1973
Travelled to Bristol. I went to Knowle Ward for a meeting where there were only four people, despite having distributed 700 leaflets. It really was awful. There is a great sense of crisis everywhere
