United_Kingdom_General_Elections

List of United Kingdom general elections

List of United Kingdom general elections

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This is a list of United Kingdom general elections (elections for the UK House of Commons) 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. There have been 57 general elections held in the UK up to and including the December 2019 election.

For by-election results, see List of United Kingdom by-elections (2010–present). For information on UK elections in general, see Elections in the United Kingdom. For earlier elections, see Elections in Great Britain.

Election results

Shares of the vote in general elections since 1832 received by Conservatives[note 1] (blue), Liberals/Liberal Democrats[note 2] (orange), Labour (red) and others (grey)[1][2][3]

In 1801, the right to vote in the United Kingdom was severely restricted. Universal suffrage, on an equal basis for men and women over the age of 21, was established in 1928. Before 1918, general elections did not occur on a single day and polling was spread over several weeks.

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. A negative majority means that there was a hung parliament (or minority government) following that election. For example, at the 1929 general election, Labour was 42 seats short of forming a majority, and so its majority is listed as −42. 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 objective 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.

List of elections

19th century

More information Election, No. ...
  1. Died in office.
  2. Was defeated on a motion to examine the accounts of the Civil List on 15 November 1830 and resigned the following day.
  3. Was dismissed by William IV on 14 November 1834.
  4. Peel was defeated on a report about the Irish Church on 7 April 1835 and resigned the following day.
  5. Defeated on a motion of no confidence on 4 June 1841 and advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament, which she did on 23 June.
  6. Ministry met the House of Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 27 August 1841 and resigned on 30 August 1841.
  7. Was defeated on an Irish Coercion Bill on 25 June 1846 and resigned on 29 June 1846.
  8. Was defeated on a militia Bill on 20 February 1852 and resigned on 23 February.
  9. Was defeated on the Budget on 16 December 1852 and resigned on 19 December 1852.
  10. Was defeated on a vote in favour of a select committee to enquire into alleged mismanagement during the Crimean War on 29 January 1855 and resigned the next day.
  11. Was defeated on a Bill, which made it a felony to plot in Britain to murder someone abroad, on 19 February 1858 and resigned on the same day.
  12. Ministry met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 10 June 1859 and resigned on 11 June 1859.
  13. Was defeated on Parliamentary reform proposals on 18 June 1866 and resigned on 26 June 1866.
  14. Hung parliament.
  15. Immediately advised the dissolution of Parliament upon becoming Prime Minister.
  16. Known as a Khaki election which is an election heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment.

20th century

More information Election, No. ...
  1. Hung parliament.
  2. Coalition Coupon. The Conservative party (led by Bonar Law) won the most votes and seats, but David Lloyd George became Prime Minister as leader of the Liberal party as part of a major cross-party deal.
  3. Bonar Law immediately advised the dissolution of Parliament upon becoming Prime Minister on 23 October 1922.
  4. Known as the 'flapper' election because it was the first election in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote.

21st century

More information Election, No. ...
  1. Brown succeeded Blair as leader of the Labour party on 24 June 2007, after being unopposed in a party leadership election. He officially became Prime Minister 3 days later.
  2. Hung parliament. Formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg (who became Deputy Prime Minister).
  3. Includes the vote share of both the Conservatives (36.1%) and Liberal Democrats (23%).
  4. Combined coalition total.
  5. May succeeded Cameron as Prime Minister on 13 July 2016, following a short party leadership election.
  6. Hung parliament.
  7. Confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party.
  8. Johnson succeeded May as Prime Minister on 24 July 2019 – two days after being elected leader of the Conservative Party in a party leadership election.
  9. Truss succeeded Johnson as Prime Minister on 6 September 2022 – the day after being elected leader of the Conservative Party in the July–September party leadership election.
  10. Sunak succeeded Truss as Prime Minister on 25 October 2022 – the day after being elected (without opposition) leader of the Conservative Party in the October party leadership election.

See also

Notes

    1. [N 1]
      Including Tory (1832), Conservative (from 1835), Liberal Conservative (1847–1859), Liberal Unionist (1886–1910), National parties (1931–1945).
    2. [N 2]
      Including Whig (to mid-19th century), Liberal (mid-19th century to 1979), National Liberal (1922), Independent Liberal (1931), SDP-Liberal Alliance (1983–1987) and Liberal Democrat (from 1992).

    References

    1. [1]
      Table 2.01 "Summary Results of General Elections 1832–2005 (UK)", in Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, British electoral facts, 1832–2006 (7th ed.), 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-2712-8, p. 59.
    2. [2]
      "Election 2010 Results", BBC News.
    3. [3]
      "Election 2015 Results", BBC News.
    4. [4]
      "COMMITTEE "UPON THE CIVIL LIST". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 15 November 1830.
    5. [5]
      "parliament.uk" (PDF). parliament.uk. commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
    6. [6]
      "PROROGATION". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 15 August 1834.
    7. [7]
      "CHURCH OF IRELAND". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 7 April 1835.
    8. [8]
      "CONFIDENCE IN THE MINISTRY— ADJOURNED DEBATE (FIFTH DAY)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 4 June 1841.
    9. [9]
      "ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO THE SPEECH— ADJOURNED DEBATE, FOURTH NIGHT". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 27 August 1841.
    10. [10]
      "PROTECTION OF LIFE (IRELAND) BILL—ADJOURNED DEBATE—(SIXTH NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 25 June 1846.
    11. [11]
      "LOCAL MILITIA". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 20 February 1852.
    12. [12]
      "WAYS AND MEANS—FINANCIAL STATEMENT—ADJOURNED DEBATE(FOURTH NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 16 December 1852.
    13. [13]
      "ARMY (CRIMEA)—THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR, AND CONDITION OF THE ARMY. ADJOURNED DEBATE.—(SECOND NIGHT.)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 29 January 1855.
    14. [14]
      "SECOND READING". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 19 February 1858. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
    15. [15]
      "DEBATE RESUMED. (THIRD NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 10 June 1859. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
    16. [16]
      "MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 19 June 1866.
    17. [17]
      Was defeated on the Budget on 8 June 1885 and resigned the next day
    18. [18]
      Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 26 January 1886 and resigned on 28 January
    19. [19]
      Was defeated on the Government of Ireland Bill on 7 June 1886 and advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament, which she did on 26 June.
    20. [20]
      Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 11 August 1892 and resigned the same day
    21. [21]
      Was defeated on the Cordite Vote on 21 June 1895 and resigned that day
    22. [22]
      Rogers, Simon (16 November 2012). "UK election historic turnouts since 1918 | News". theguardian.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
    23. [23]
      Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 21 January 1924 and resigned the next day
    24. [24]
      Katritses, Thomas. "British By-Elections in War-Time", American Political Science Review, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Jun., 1942), pp. 525-532.
    25. [25]
      Bate, Alex; Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Audickas, Lukas; Dempsey, Noel; Hawkins, Oliver; Cracknell, Richard; McInnes, Roderick; Rutherford, Tom; Apostolova, Vyara (29 January 2019). "General Election 2017: full results and analysis" – via commonslibrary.parliament.uk. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
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