Election Results
In 1801 the right to vote in the United Kingdom was a severely restricted practice. Universal suffrage, on an equal basis for men and women over the age of 21, was established in 1929. Before 1918, general elections did not occur on a single day and polling was spread over several weeks. The date given in the table for elections prior to 1918 is the date Parliament assembled after the election, which could be in the year after the general election.
The majority figure given is for the difference between the number of MPs elected at the general election from the party (or parties) of the government, as opposed to all other parties (some of which may have been giving some support to the government, but were not participating in a coalition). The Speaker is excluded from the calculation. If the party in office changed the figure is re-calculated, but no allowance is made for changes after the general election. No attempt is made to define a majority before 1832, when the Reform Act disenfranchised the rotten boroughs; before then the Tory party had an undemocratically entrenched dominance. Particularly in the early part of the period the complexity of factional alignments, with both the Whig and Tory traditions tending to have some members in government and others in opposition factions simultaneously, make it impossible to produce an accurate majority figure. The figures between 1832 and about 1859 are approximate due to problems of defining what was a party in government, as the source provides figures for all Liberals rather than just the Whig component in what developed into the Liberal Party. The Whig and Peelite Prime Ministers in the table below are regarded as having the support of all Liberals.
- Source for majority calculations up to 1999: Rallings, Colin, ed. (2000). British Electoral Facts 1832–1999 (6th ed.). Aldershot, Hants, England: Ashgate. ISBN 9781840140538. OCLC 44398007.
| Election | Date | Prime Minister(s) (during term) | Winning Party | Majority | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1802 (MPs) | 22 July 1802 | Henry Addington William Pitt the Younger The Lord Grenville |
Tory Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig) Whig |
... | |
| 1806 (MPs) | 17 November 1806 | The Lord Grenville The Duke of Portland |
Whig Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig) |
... | |
| 1807 (MPs) | 22 June 1807 | The Duke of Portland Spencer Perceval The Earl of Liverpool |
Tory (Pittite who called himself a Whig) Tory Tory |
... | |
| 1812 (MPs) | 24 November 1812 | The Earl of Liverpool | Tory | ... | |
| 1818 (MPs) | 4 August 1818 | The Earl of Liverpool | Tory | ... | |
| 1820 (MPs) | 16 January 1821 | The Earl of Liverpool | Tory | ... | |
| 1826 (MPs) | 19 June 1826 | The Earl of Liverpool George Canning The Viscount Goderich The Duke of Wellington |
Tory Tory Tory Tory |
... | |
| 1830 (MPs) | 9 August 1830 | The Duke of Wellington The Earl Grey |
Tory Whig |
... | |
| 1831 (MPs) | 25 July 1831 | The Earl Grey | Whig | 136 | |
| At this point, the Reform Act 1832 gave suffrage to propertied male adults and disenfranchised almost all of the rotten boroughs. | |||||
| 1832 (MPs) | 29 January 1833 | The Earl Grey The Viscount Melbourne The Duke of Wellington Sir Robert Peel |
Whig Whig Conservative Conservative |
225 (L) -308 (C) |
|
| 1835 (MPs) | 19 February 1835 | Sir Robert Peel The Viscount Melbourne |
Conservative Whig |
-113 (C) 113 (L) |
|
| 1837 (MPs) | 15 November 1837 | The Viscount Melbourne | Whig | 29 | |
| 1841 (MPs) | 19 August 1841 | The Viscount Melbourne Sir Robert Peel Lord John Russell |
Whig Conservative Whig |
77 |
|
| 1847 (MPs) | 9 August 1847 | Lord John Russell The Earl of Derby |
Whig Conservative |
−72 | |
| 1852 (MPs) | 4 November 1852 | The Earl of Derby The Earl of Aberdeen The Viscount Palmerston |
Conservative Peelite Whig |
7 | |
| 1857 (MPs) | 30 April 1857 | The Viscount Palmerston The Earl of Derby |
Whig Conservative |
100 |
|
| 1859 (MPs) | 31 May 1859 | The Earl of Derby The Viscount Palmerston |
Conservative Liberal |
59 |
|
| 1865 (MPs) | 11 July 1865 | The Viscount Palmerston The Earl Russell The Earl of Derby Benjamin Disraeli |
Liberal Liberal Conservative Conservative |
81 | |
| At this point, the Reform Act 1867 significantly widened the suffrage and disenfranchised more smaller boroughs. | |||||
| 1868 (MPs) | 10 December 1868 | William Ewart Gladstone | Liberal | 115 | |
| 1874 (MPs) | 5 March 1874 | Benjamin Disraeli | Conservative | 49 | |
| 1880 (MPs) | 29 April 1880 | William Ewart Gladstone The Marquess of Salisbury |
Liberal Conservative |
51 |
|
| At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1884 extended the borough franchise of 1867 to the counties, increasing the electorate to about 5,500,000 men. |
|||||
| 1885 (MPs) | 12 January 1886 | The Marquess of Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone |
Conservative Liberal |
−172 |
|
| 1886 (MPs) | 5 August 1886 | The Marquess of Salisbury | Conservative | 116 | |
| 1892 (MPs) | 4 August 1892 | The Marquess of Salisbury William Ewart Gladstone The Earl of Rosebery The Marquess of Salisbury |
Conservative Liberal Liberal Conservative |
−126 |
|
| 1895 (MPs) | 12 August 1895 | The Marquess of Salisbury | Conservative | 153 | |
| 1900 (MPs) | 3 December 1900 | The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman |
Conservative Conservative Liberal |
135 |
The "khaki" election. |
| 1906 (MPs) | 13 February 1906 | Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman H. H. Asquith |
Liberal | 129 | |
| January 1910 (MPs) | 15 February 1910 | H. H. Asquith | Liberal | −122 | |
| December 1910 (MPs) | 31 January 1911 | H. H. Asquith David Lloyd George |
Liberal | −126 | |
| At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1918 gave suffrage to most of the adult population (men over 21, women over 30). | |||||
| 1918 (MPs) | 14 December 1918 | David Lloyd George Andrew Bonar Law |
Liberal (Coalition Government) Conservative |
238 |
The "coupon" election |
| 1922 (MPs) | 15 November 1922 | Andrew Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin |
Conservative | 74 | |
| 1923 (MPs) | 6 December 1923 | Stanley Baldwin Ramsay MacDonald |
Conservative Labour |
−98 |
|
| 1924 (MPs) | 29 October 1924 | Stanley Baldwin | Conservative | 210 | |
| At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1928 gave universal suffrage to the adult population over 21. | |||||
| 1929 (MPs) | 30 May 1929 | Ramsay MacDonald | Labour | −42 | The "flapper" election |
| 1931 (MPs) | 27 October 1931 | Ramsay MacDonald | National Labour (National Government) | 492 | |
| 1935 (MPs) | 14 November 1935 | Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill Winston Churchill |
Conservative (National Government) Conservative (National Government) Conservative (Wartime Coalition) Conservative (National Government) |
242 242 609 242 |
|
| 1945 (MPs) | 5 July 1945 | Clement Attlee | Labour | 146 | |
| At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1948 abolished plural voting, university constituencies and the few remaining two member constituencies. |
|||||
| 1950 (MPs) | 23 February 1950 | Clement Attlee | Labour | 5 | |
| 1951 (MPs) | 25 October 1951 | Sir Winston Churchill Sir Anthony Eden |
Conservative | 17 | |
| 1955 (MPs) | 26 May 1955 | Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan |
Conservative | 60 | |
| 1959 (MPs) | 8 October 1959 | Harold Macmillan Sir Alec Douglas-Home |
Conservative | 100 | |
| 1964 (MPs) | 15 October 1964 | Harold Wilson | Labour | 4 | |
| 1966 (MPs) | 31 March 1966 | Harold Wilson | Labour | 98 | |
| At this point, the Representation of the People Act 1969 gave suffrage to the adult population over 18. | |||||
| 1970 (MPs) | 18 June 1970 | Edward Heath | Conservative | 30 | |
| February 1974 (MPs) | 28 February 1974 | Harold Wilson | Labour (minority government) | −33 | Hung Parliament |
| October 1974 (MPs) | 10 October 1974 | Harold Wilson James Callaghan |
Labour | 3 | |
| 1979 (MPs) | 3 May 1979 | Margaret Thatcher | Conservative | 43 | |
| 1983 (MPs) | 9 June 1983 | Margaret Thatcher | Conservative | 144 | |
| 1987 (MPs) | 11 June 1987 | Margaret Thatcher John Major |
Conservative | 102 | |
| 1992 (MPs) | 9 April 1992 | John Major | Conservative | 21 | |
| 1997 (MPs) | 1 May 1997 | Tony Blair | Labour | 179 | |
| 2001 (MPs) | 7 June 2001 | Tony Blair | Labour | 167 | |
| 2005 (MPs) | 5 May 2005 | Tony Blair Gordon Brown |
Labour | 66 | |
| 2010 (MPs) | 6 May 2010 | David Cameron | Conservative (formed coalition with Liberal Democrats) | 78 | Hung Parliament |
| Next general election | By 7 May 2015 | ||||
Note: A negative majority means that there was a hung parliament (or minority parliament) following that election. For example, in the 1929 election, Labour was 42 seats short of forming a majority, and so its majority is listed as −42. In the case of the 2010 election, the combined majority for the coalition was 78.
Read more about this topic: List Of United Kingdom General Elections
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