On Thursday 11 June 1987, the 1987 United Kingdom general election was held to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons, with 38 constituencies being in Wales.

The Labour Party again won a majority of Welsh MPs, gaining four seats for a total of 24 out of 38. The governing Conservatives lost six seats, with the SDP–Liberal Alliance and Plaid Cymru gaining one each.

Despite Labour winning the most votes in Wales, across the UK the Conservatives won a landslide majority and continued in office for a third term.

Background: pit closures More than 25,000 Welsh colliers had lost their jobs in the decade of pit closures following the miners' strike of 1984. The coalfield communities in Wales still accounted for a quarter of the entire Welsh population in 2014. The closures caused the mining areas of Wales to have the lowest "job density" of all 16 coalfield communities across Wales (and lower job densities than the areas of Scotland and England also).

After the election, the coal mines of Abernant and Abercynon were closed in 1988, Cynheidre and Marine/Six Bells, Merthyr Vale, Oakdale and Trelewis were closed in 1989. Deep navigation and Penallta mines were also closed in 1991.

Candidates

Below is a table summarising the candidates of the 1987 general election in Wales.

Affiliation CandidatesLabour Party 38Conservative Party 38Plaid Cymru 38Liberal Party 20Social Democratic Party 18Green Party 4Communist Party of Great Britain 1Independent Labour 1Total 158

Results Below is a table summarising the results of the 1987 general election in Wales.

+PartySeatsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%) Change (%)   Labour 24 4 0 4 63.2 765,209 45.1 7.6   Conservative 8 0 6 6 21.1 501,316 29.5 1.5   SDP–Liberal Alliance 3 1 0 1 7.9 304,230 17.9 5.3 3 1 0 1 5.3 181,427 10.7 1.4 0 0 0 — 122,803 7.2 3.9   Plaid Cymru 3 1 0 1 7.9 123,599 7.3 0.5   Green 0 0 0 — 2,221 0.1 0.1   Communist 0 0 0 — 869 0.1   Independent Labour 0 colspan=3 — 652 0.0 Total 38 0 100.0 1,698,096 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout 78.9 2.8

See also 1987 United Kingdom general election in England 1987 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1987 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland List of MPs for constituencies in Wales (1987–1992)

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