United Kingdom general elections

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This is a list of United Kingdom general elections since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801-1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, before being co-opted to serve in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, so that Parliament is not included in the table below. For by-election results see List of UK by-elections. For information on UK elections in general, see Elections in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Election results

See also: United Kingdom general elections overview

The right to vote was severely restricted when the United Kingdom was established in 1801. Universal suffrage, on an equal basis for men and women over the age of 21, was not established until 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. 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: British Electoral Facts 1832-1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate 2000)

Election	Date	Prime Minister(s)	Party	Majority
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	...
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	Robert Peel	Conservative	77
1847 (MPs)	9 August 1847	Lord John Russell	Whig	−72
1852 (MPs)	4 November 1852	The Earl of Derby The Earl of Aberdeen	Conservative Peelite	7
1857 (MPs)	30 April 1857	The Viscount Palmerston	Liberal	100
1859 (MPs)	31 May 1859	The Viscount Palmerston	Liberal	59
1865 (MPs)	1 February 1866	The Earl Russell The Earl of Derby Benjamin Disraeli	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	Liberal	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	William Ewart Gladstone The Earl of Rosebery	Liberal	−126
1895 (MPs)	12 August 1895	The Marquess of Salisbury	Conservative	153
1900 (MPs)	3 December 1900	The Marquess of Salisbury Arthur Balfour	Conservative	135
1906 (MPs)	February 13, 1906	Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman Herbert Henry Asquith	Liberal	129
January 1910 (MPs)	15 February 1910	Herbert Henry Asquith	Liberal	−122
December 1910 (MPs)	31 January 1911	Herbert Henry 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	Liberal (Coalition Government)	238
1922 (MPs)	15 November 1922	Andrew Bonar Law Stanley Baldwin	Conservative	74
1923 (MPs)	6 December 1923	James Ramsay MacDonald	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	James Ramsay MacDonald	Labour	−42
1931 (MPs)	27 October 1931	James Ramsay MacDonald	National Labour (National Government)	492
1935 (MPs)	14 November 1935	Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill	Conservative (National Government)	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	Conservative	17
1955 (MPs)	26 May 1955	Sir Anthony Eden Harold Macmillan	Conservative	54
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	96
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	31
February 1974 (MPs)	28 February 1974	Harold Wilson	Labour	−33
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	Labour	66

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.

United Kingdom General Elections v • d • e
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