United Kingdom general elections overview
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom general elections overview, an overview of United Kingdom General Election results since 1922. This 1922 election
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...

 was the first election in the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, after the creation of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...

 removed Southern Ireland
Southern Ireland
Southern Ireland was a short-lived autonomous region of the United Kingdom established on 3 May 1921 and dissolved on 6 December 1922.Southern Ireland was established under the Government of Ireland Act 1920 together with its sister region, Northern Ireland...

 from the UK.

1979-2010

The last thirty years saw just five prime ministers, with Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 and Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

 the two longest serving post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 prime ministers in the UK (the other prime ministers during this period being John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...

, Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

 and David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....

). There was also a mini-revival of the Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 which, after a merger with the Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

 became the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

 and increased their seats in parliament from 11 in the 1979 election to 62 in 2005. The outcome of the 2010 election brought about the first hung parliament
Hung parliament
In a two-party parliamentary system of government, a hung parliament occurs when neither major political party has an absolute majority of seats in the parliament . It is also less commonly known as a balanced parliament or a legislature under no overall control...

 since 1974 and forced the victorious Conservative Party to accept the Liberal Democrats as their coalition partner.

Voter turnout
Voter turnout
Voter turnout is the percentage of eligible voters who cast a ballot in an election . After increasing for many decades, there has been a trend of decreasing voter turnout in most established democracies since the 1960s...

 also fell during this period, with the 2001 election seeing a post-World War Two low of 59.4%. In Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

, the Good Friday Agreement has led to a vast reduction in conflict, though the moderate parties who gained power in the 1980s, such as the Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

, have been replaced as the dominant powers by the likes of Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 and the Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

. The elections of the 1990s and 2000s also saw an increased proliferation of smaller parties, with more parties standing at the 2005 general election than ever before.
Party 2005
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....

 
2001
United Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...

 
1997
United Kingdom general election, 1997
The United Kingdom general election, 1997 was held on 1 May 1997, more than five years after the previous election on 9 April 1992, to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party ended its 18 years in opposition under the leadership of Tony Blair, and won the general...

 
1992
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

 
1987
United Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...

 
1983
United Kingdom general election, 1983
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of Labour in 1945...

 
1979
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...

% Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats
Alliance (NI)
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....

 
0.l 0 0.1 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.3 0
BNP
British National Party
The British National Party is a British far-right political party formed as a splinter group from the National Front by John Tyndall in 1982...

 
0.7 0 0.2 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - -
Communist
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.1 0
Community Action Party
Community Action Party
The Community Action Party is a minor political party in the United Kingdom, mostly active in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. It advocates free health care and education provision, a managed public transport infrastructure free to all at the point of use and a moratorium on the use of green belt...

 
0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 
30.65 198 31.7 166 30.7 165 41.9 336 42.2 376 42.4 397 43.9 339
Democratic Unionist
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

 
0.89 9 0.7 5 0.3 2 0.3 3 0.3 3 0.5 3 0.2 3
English Democrats Party
English Democrats Party
The English Democrats are an English federalist political party, committed to the formation of a devolved English Parliament with at least the same powers as those granted to the Scottish Parliament. Whilst not supporting English Independence, the English Democrats consider themselves the English...

 
0.1 0 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Green Party of England and Wales
Green Party of England and Wales
The Green Party of England and Wales is a political party in England and Wales which follows the traditions of Green politics and maintains a strong commitment to social progressivism. It is the largest Green party in the United Kingdom, containing within it various regional divisions including...

 / Green Party
Green Party (UK)
The Green Party was a Green political party in the United Kingdom. It has been succeeded by three political parties:* the Green Party of England and Wales* the Green Party in Northern Ireland* the Scottish Green Party- PEOPLE, 1973–1975 :...

 
1.0 0 0.6 0 0.3 0 0.5 0 0.3 0 0.2 0 0.1 0
Scottish Green Party
Scottish Green Party
The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...

 
0.1 0 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Independents  0.5 1 0.4 0 0.1 1 0.1 0 - - 0.1 0 - -
Independent Conservative - - - - 0.0 0 0.1 0 - - 0.0 0 0.0 0
IKHHC
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern
Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern is a political party based in Kidderminster, United Kingdom...

 
0.1 1 0.1 - - - - - - - - - - -
Independent Labour - - - - 0.0 0 0.1 0 - - 0.1 0 0.1 1
Independent Liberal / Independent Liberal Democrat - - - - 0.0 0 - - 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0
Independent SDLP - - - - - - - - - - - - 0.0 0
Irish Independence
Irish Independence Party
The Irish Independence Party was an nationalist political party in Northern Ireland, founded in October 1977 by Frank McManus and Fergus McAteer...

 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 0.1 0
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 
35.24 356 40.7 412 43.2 418 34.4 271 30.8 229 27.6 209 36.9 269
Legalise Cannabis Alliance  0.0 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...

/
SDP-Liberal Alliance
SDP-Liberal Alliance
The SDP–Liberal Alliance was an electoral pact formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Liberal Party in the United Kingdom which was in existence from 1981 to 1988, when the bulk of the two parties merged to form the Social and Liberal Democrats, later referred to as simply the Liberal...

/
Liberal Party (UK)
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 
22.06 62 18.3 52 16.8 46 17.8 20 22.6 22 25.4 23 13.8 11
Liberal Party (1989)
Liberal Party (UK, 1989)
The Liberal Party is a United Kingdom political party. It was formed in 1989 by a group of individuals within the original Liberal Party who felt that the merger of the party with the Social Democratic Party, to form the Liberal Democrats, had ended the spirit of the Liberal Party, claiming that...

 
0.1 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.2 0 - - - - - -
Monster Raving Loony  0.0 0 0.0 0 0 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - -
National Democrats
National Democrats (UK)
By the beginning of 2002 the party had ceased political activity. It continued as a pressure group under the name Campaign for National Democracy until 2008; the party officially ceased to exist after the death of its leader at the beginning of 2011....

 
- - - - 0.0 0 - - - - - - - -
National Front
British National Front
The National Front is a far right, white-only political party whose major political activities took place during the 1970s and 1980s. Its popularity peaked in the 1979 general election, when it received 191,719 votes ....

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - - - - - -
Natural Law Party
Natural Law Party
The Natural Law Party was a transnational party based on the teachings of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It was active in up to 74 countries, and ran candidates in at least ten. Founded in 1992, it was mostly disbanded in 2004 but continues in India and in some U.S. states.The NLP viewed "natural law" as...

 
- - - - 0.1 0 0.2 0 - - - - - -
People's Justice Party  - - 0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

 
0.64 3 0.7 4 0.5 4 0.5 4 0.4 3 0.4 2 0.4 1
Progressive Unionist Party
Progressive Unionist Party
The Progressive Unionist Party is a small unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast, becoming the PUP in 1979...

 
- - 0.0 0 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -
ProLife Alliance
ProLife Alliance
ProLife Alliance is an advocacy group in the United Kingdom, formed in October 1996. It is opposed to human cloning and abortion, opposes experiments on human embryos and also opposes any form of euthanasia. It supports anti-abortion taxation policies and guaranteed maternity and paternity leave...

 
- - 0.0 0 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -
Protestant Unionist
Protestant Unionist Party
The Protestant Unionist Party was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was set up by Ian Paisley, and was the forerunner of the modern Democratic Unionist Party and emerged from the Ulster Protestant Action movement.The UPA had two councillors elected,...

 
- - - - - - - - 0.0 0 - - - -
RESPECT The Unity Coalition
RESPECT The Unity Coalition
Respect is a socialist political party in England and Wales founded in 2004. Its name is a contrived acronym standing for Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade Unionism.-Policies:...

 
0.3 1 - - - - - - - - - - - -
Scottish Labour Party
Scottish Labour Party (1976-1981)
The Scottish Labour Party was formed on January 18, 1976, as a breakaway from the UK Labour Party, by members disaffected with the then Labour Government's failure to secure a devolved Scottish Assembly, as well as with its social and economic agenda...

 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 0.1 0
Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour was a minor political party operating in Scotland in the 1990s and was part of the Committee for a Workers' International...

 
- - - - - - 0.1 0 - - - - - -
Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

 
1.57 6 1.8 5 2.0 6 1.9 3 1.3 3 1.1 1 1.6 2
Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....

 
0.2 0 0.3 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - -
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 / Independent Republican
Independent Republican (Ireland)
Independent Republican was a political title frequently used by Irish republicans when contesting elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1920s....

 
0.64 5 0.7 4 0.4 2 0.2 0 1 0.3 1 0.3 0 0.1
SDLP
Social Democratic and Labour Party
The Social Democratic and Labour Party is a social-democratic, Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Its basic party platform advocates Irish reunification, and the further devolution of powers while Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom...

 
0.5 3 0.6 3 0.6 3 0.5 4 0.5 3 0.4 1 0.4 1
Social Democratic Party
Social Democratic Party (UK)
The Social Democratic Party was a political party in the United Kingdom that was created on 26 March 1981 and existed until 1988. It was founded by four senior Labour Party 'moderates', dubbed the 'Gang of Four': Roy Jenkins, David Owen, Bill Rodgers and Shirley Williams...

 
- - - - - - 0.1 0 See SDP-Liberal Alliance - -
Socialist Labour
Socialist Labour Party (UK)
The Socialist Labour Party is a far left socialist political party in the United Kingdom. The party is led by former trade union leader Arthur Scargill, who established it in 1996 as a breakaway from the Labour Party...

 
0.1 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 - - - - - - - -
Socialist Alliance
Socialist Party (England and Wales)
The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist party active in England and Wales.It publishes the weekly newspaper The Socialist and the monthly magazine Socialism Today...

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - -
Ulster Popular Unionist
Ulster Popular Unionist Party
The Ulster Popular Unionist Party was a unionist political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1980 by James Kilfedder, independent Unionist Member of Parliament for North Down, who led the party until his death in 1995....

 / Independent Ulster Unionist
- - - - - - 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 1
Ulster Unionist  0.5 1 0.8 6 0.8 10 0.8 9 0.8 9 0.8 1 | 0.8 5
Unionist Party
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland
The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974.-Formation:The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals, the Northern...

 
- - - - - - - -
0.0 0
United Ulster Unionist
United Ulster Unionist Party
The United Ulster Unionist Party was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1975 and 1984.It emerged from a division in the Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party in the late 1970s...

 
- - - - - - - -
0.1 1
UK Independence Party
United Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...

 
2.3 0 1.5 0 0.3 0 - - - - - - - -
UK Unionist
UK Unionist Party
The UK Unionist Party was a small unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1995 to 2008. It was nominally formed by Robert McCartney, formerly of the Ulster Unionist Party, to contest a by-election the North Down by-election, 1995 and then further constituted to contest the 1996...

 / Real Unionist 
- - 0.1 0 0.1 1 - - 0.1 0 - - - -
Veritas
Veritas (political party)
Veritas is a political party in the United Kingdom, formed in February 2005 at Hinckley golf club by politician-celebrity Robert Kilroy-Silk following a split from the United Kingdom Independence Party . Kilroy-Silk served as party leader from formation, through the 2005 General Election, until...

 
0.1 0 - - - - - - - - - - -
Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.1 0

1955-1974

The elections of this period took place in the context of the decolonialisation of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 and the UK's declining status as a Great Power
Great power
A great power is a nation or state that has the ability to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength and diplomatic and cultural influence which may cause small powers to consider the opinions of great powers before taking actions...

. It also saw the UK enter the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

 and some periods of high unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

. The early years of the period saw Conservative consolidation of power, before Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

's two general election wins in 1964 and 1966. There was then a series of close fought elections, including two in 1974. This period was also the one in which the Liberal Party was at its all time low, never having more than 14 seats (though it had been in 1951 when they'd had their lowest ever percentage of the vote).

The Ulster Unionists
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 dominated in Northern Ireland, whilst the Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

 and Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

 became major players for the first time, the SNP gaining 11 seats in 1974. This period also saw the demise of the autonomous Scottish Unionist Party, when it merged with the Conservative Party.
Party Oct 1974
United Kingdom general election, October 1974
The United Kingdom general election of October 1974 took place on 10 October 1974 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. It was the second general election of that year and resulted in the Labour Party led by Harold Wilson, winning by a tiny majority of 3 seats.The election of...

 
Feb 1974
United Kingdom general election, February 1974
The United Kingdom's general election of February 1974 was held on the 28th of that month. It was the first of two United Kingdom general elections held that year, and the first election since the Second World War not to produce an overall majority in the House of Commons for the winning party,...

 
1970
United Kingdom general election, 1970
The United Kingdom general election of 1970 was held on 18 June 1970, and resulted in a surprise victory for the Conservative Party under leader Edward Heath, who defeated the Labour Party under Harold Wilson. The election also saw the Liberal Party and its new leader Jeremy Thorpe lose half their...

 
1966
United Kingdom general election, 1966
The 1966 United Kingdom general election on 31 March 1966 was called by sitting Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Wilson's decision to call an election turned on the fact that his government, elected a mere 17 months previously in 1964 had an unworkably small majority of only 4 MPs...

 
1964
United Kingdom general election, 1964
The United Kingdom general election of 1964 was held on 15 October 1964, more than five years after the preceding election, and thirteen years after the Conservative Party had retaken power...

 
1959
United Kingdom general election, 1959
This United Kingdom general election was held on 8 October 1959. It marked a third successive victory for the ruling Conservative Party, led by Harold Macmillan...

 
1955
United Kingdom general election, 1955
The 1955 United Kingdom general election was held on 26 May 1955, four years after the previous general election. It resulted in a substantially increased majority of 60 for the Conservative government under new leader and prime minister Sir Anthony Eden against Labour Party, now in their 20th year...

% Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats
Alliance (NI)
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland is a liberal and nonsectarian political party in Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's fifth-largest party overall, with eight seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly and one in the House of Commons....

 
0.2 0 0.1 0 - - - - - - - - - -
BNP
British National Party (1960s)
The British National Party was a far right political party that operated in the United Kingdom from 1960 to 1967. Led by John Bean the group, which was subject to internal divisions during its brief history, established some areas of local support before helping to form the National Front in...

 
- - - - - - 0.0 0 - - - - -
Communist
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 
0.1 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.1 0 0.1 0
Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 
35.8 277 37.9 297 46.4 330 41.9 253 43.4 304 49.4 365 49.7 345
Democratic Labour  0.1 0 0.1 1 - - - - - - - - - -
Democratic Party
Democratic Party (UK, 1969)
The Democratic Party, initially known as Our Party, was formed in May 1969 by Desmond Donnelly, who had been a Labour MP, but had resigned the whip in January 1968 and been expelled by the party two months later...

 
- - - - 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -
Democratic Unionist Party
Democratic Unionist Party
The Democratic Unionist Party is the larger of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland. Founded by Ian Paisley and currently led by Peter Robinson, it is currently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly and the fourth-largest party in the House of Commons of the...

 
0.3 1 0.2 1 - - - - - - - - - -
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 
39.2 313 37.2 301 43.1 287 48.0 364 44.1 317 43.4 258 46.4 277
Labour Party (Ireland)
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...

 
- - - - - - - - - - - - 0.1 0
Labour Party(NI)
Northern Ireland Labour Party
The Northern Ireland Labour Party was an Irish political party which operated from 1924 until 1987.In 1913 the British Labour Party resolved to give the recently formed Irish Labour Party exclusive organising rights in Ireland...

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 
18.3 13 19.3 14 7.5 6 8.5 12 11.2 9 5.9 6 2.7 6
National Front  0.4 0 0.2 0 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

 
0.6 3 0.5 2 0.6 0 0.2 0 0.2 0 0.3 0 0.2 0
Independents  0.0 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.2 0
Independent Conservative 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 1 - -
Independent Labour 0.2 0 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.0 0 - - - - 0.0 0
Independent Liberal 0.0 0 0.2 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 - -
Independent Socialist - - 0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Independent Republican
Independent Republican (Ireland)
Independent Republican was a political title frequently used by Irish republicans when contesting elections in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since the 1920s....

 / Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 
0.2 1 0.0 0 - - | 0.2 0 0.4 0 0.2 0 0.6 2
National Democratic
National Democratic Party (UK, 1966)
The National Democratic Party was a right wing political party that operated in the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s. The NDP sought to poisition itself as an early rival to the National Front although ultimately it failed to challenege the position of this group.-Background:The NDP had...

 
- - - - 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - -
National Democrats (NI)
National Democrats (Northern Ireland)
The National Democratic Party was an Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland.-Origins:The organisation's origins lay in National Unity, a political study group founded in 1959...

 
- - - - 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -
Nationalist (NI)
Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)
The Nationalist Party† - was the continuation of the Irish Parliamentary Party, and was formed after partition, by the Northern Ireland-based members of the IPP....

 
- - - - - - 0.1 0 - - - - - -
NI Independent Labour
Northern Ireland Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Group was a nationalist political party in Northern Ireland from the late 1950s to the mid-1960s. Sometimes known as the Independent Labour Party, it was formed in 1958 in Belfast by independent Labour MP Frank Hanna, with the support of various local Roman Catholic clerics...

 
- - - - - - - - - - 0.1 0
Protestant Unionist Party
Protestant Unionist Party
The Protestant Unionist Party was a unionist political party operating in Northern Ireland from 1966 to 1971. It was set up by Ian Paisley, and was the forerunner of the modern Democratic Unionist Party and emerged from the Ulster Protestant Action movement.The UPA had two councillors elected,...

 
- - - - 0.1 1 - - - - - - - -
Republican Clubs  0.1 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Republican Labour
Republican Labour Party
The Republican Labour Party was a political party in Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1964, with two MPs at Stormont, Harry Diamond and Gerry Fitt...

 
- - - - 0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 0 - -
Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

 
2.9 11 2.0 7 1.1 1 0.5 0 0.2 0 0.1 0 0.0 0
SDLP
Social Democratic Labour Party
Social Democratic Labour Party may refer to one of the following.*Estonian Social Democratic Labour Party, successor merged into the Estonian United Left Party*Social Democratic Workers' Party...

 
0.6 1 0.5 1 - - - - - - - - - -
Ulster Unionist Party
Ulster Unionist Party
The Ulster Unionist Party – sometimes referred to as the Official Unionist Party or, in a historic sense, simply the Unionist Party – is the more moderate of the two main unionist political parties in Northern Ireland...

 
0.9 6 0.8 7 Before 1974, The UUP MPs sat in parliament as part of the Conservative Party
Unionist (NI)
Unionist Party of Northern Ireland
The Unionist Party of Northern Ireland was a political party founded by Brian Faulkner in September 1974.-Formation:The party emerged following splits in the Ulster Unionist Party in 1973 and 1974 over the British government's white paper Northern Ireland Constitutional Proposals, the Northern...

 / Pro-Assembly Unionist 
0.1 0 0.3 0 - - - - - - - - - -
Unity
Unity (Northern Ireland)
"Unity" was the political label for a series of electoral pacts by Irish nationalist and Irish Republican candidates in Northern Ireland elections in the late 1960s and early 1970s...

 
- - 0.0 0 0.4 2 - - - - - - - -
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
The Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party , informally known as Ulster Vanguard, was a unionist political party which existed in Northern Ireland between 1973 and 1978...

 
0.3 3 0.2 3 - - - - - - - - - -

1929-1951

This era saw massive social change in the UK, going through the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

 of the 1930s, the national government of the Second World War and the socialist Labour government of Clement Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...

. The Labour party gained a landslide victory
Landslide victory
In politics, a landslide victory is the victory of a candidate or political party by an overwhelming margin in an election...

 in 1945, contrasting with the pre-war dominance of the Conservative Party. This was also the period of the Liberal Party's final collapse, with their split into the Liberal and National Liberal parties (the National Liberals eventually joined the Conservatives) and the completion of Labour's rise to power.

1929 also saw the first Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 nationalist candidates.
Party 1951
United Kingdom general election, 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats...

 
1950
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...

 
1945
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...

 
1935
United Kingdom general election, 1935
The United Kingdom general election held on 14 November 1935 resulted in a large, though reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Conservative Stanley Baldwin. The greatest number of MPs, as before, were Conservative, while the National Liberal vote held steady...

 
1931
United Kingdom general election, 1931
The United Kingdom general election on Tuesday 27 October 1931 was the last in the United Kingdom not held on a Thursday. It was also the last election, and the only one under universal suffrage, where one party received an absolute majority of the votes cast.The 1931 general election was the...

 
1929
United Kingdom general election, 1929
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

% Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats
Agricultural Party
Agricultural Party
The Agricultural Party was a minor political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1931 the Norfolk Farmers' Party but changed its name one week after its formation...

 
- - - - 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 -
Anti-Partition
Anti-Partition of Ireland League
The Irish Anti-Partition League was a political organisation based in Northern Ireland which campaigned for a united Ireland.-Foundation:...

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 - - - - - - - -
Common Wealth
Common Wealth Party
The Common Wealth Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom in the Second World War. Thereafter, it continued in being, essentially as a pressure group, until 1993.-The war years:...

 
- - - - 0.5 1 - - - - - -
Commonwealth Labour
Commonwealth Labour Party
The Commonwealth Labour Party was a minor political party in Northern Ireland. The party was founded in 1942 by Harry Midgley, former leader of the Northern Ireland Labour Party , in order to pursue his brand of labour unionism....

 
- - - - 0.1 0 - - - - - -
Communist
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 
0.1 0 0.3 0 0.4 2 0.1 1 0.3 0 0.2 0
Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 
44.3 302 40.0 282 36.2 197 47.8 387 55.50 470 38.1 260
Independent  0.1 0 0.2 0 0.6 8 0.1 2 0.0 1 0.4 4
Independent Conservative 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.2 2 0.1 0 - - - -
Independent Labour - - 0.1 0 0.3 2 0.1 0 0.1 0 0.1 1
Independent Labour Party
Independent Labour Party
The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.2 3 0.7 4 - - - -
Independent Liberal - - 0.1 1 0.1 2 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0
Independent Nationalist 0.3 2 - - 0.0 0 - - 0.0 0 - -
Independent Progressive - - - - 0.1 1 0.0 0 - - - -
Irish Nationalist
Nationalist Party (Ireland)
The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922...

 
- - 0.2 2 0.4 2 0.2 2 0.4 2 0.1 3
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 
48.8 295 46.1 315 47.71 393 38.0 154 30.8 52 37.1 287
Labour Party (Ireland)
Labour Party (Ireland)
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in the Republic of Ireland. The Labour Party was founded in 1912 in Clonmel, County Tipperary, by James Connolly, James Larkin and William X. O'Brien as the political wing of the Irish Trade Union Congress. Unlike the other main Irish...

 
0.1 1 0.2 0 - - - - - - - -
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 
2.5 6 9.1 9 9.04 12 6.7 21 6.5 32 23.6 59
Liverpool Protestant
Liverpool Protestant Party
The Liverpool Protestant Party was a minor political party operating in the city of Liverpool in northwest England.-Origins and Context:...

 
- - - - 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 - -
National
UK National Government
In the United Kingdom the term National Government is an abstract concept referring to a coalition of some or all major political parties. In a historical sense it usually refers primarily to the governments of Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain which held office from 1931...

 
- - - - 0.5 2 0.3 1 0.5 4 - -
National Independent - - 0.0 0 0.3 2 0.2 2 0.2 2 - -
National Labour  - - 0.0 0 - - - - - - - -
National Liberal
National Liberal Party (UK, 1931)
The National Liberal Party, known until 1948 as the Liberal National Party, was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1931 to 1968...

 
3.7 19 3.4 16 2.9 11 3.7 33 3.7 35 - -
National Party of Scotland
National Party of Scotland
The National Party of Scotland was a political party in Scotland and a forerunner of the current Scottish National Party.The NPS was formed in 1928 after John MacCormick of the Glasgow University Scottish Nationalist Association called a meeting of all those favouring the establishment of a party...

 
- - - - - - - - 0.1 0 0.0 0
New Party
New Party (Oswald Mosley)
The New Party was a political party briefly active in the United Kingdom in the early 1930s. It was formed by Sir Oswald Mosley, an MP who had belonged to both the Conservative and Labour parties, quitting Labour after its 1930 conference narrowly rejected his "Mosley Memorandum", a document he...

 
- - - - - - - - 0.2 0 - -
Plaid Cymru
Plaid Cymru
' is a political party in Wales. It advocates the establishment of an independent Welsh state within the European Union. was formed in 1925 and won its first seat in 1966...

 
0.0 0 0.1 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0 0.0 0
Scottish National Party
Scottish National Party
The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

 
0.0 0 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.2 0 - - - -
Scottish Prohibition
Scottish Prohibition Party
The Scottish Prohibition Party was a minor Scottish political party which advocated alcohol prohibition.The party was founded in 1901. In its early years, Bob Stewart acted as the party's full-time organiser...

 
- - - - - - - - 0.1 0 0.1 1
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

 
0.1 0 0.1 0 - - - - - - - -

1922-1924

In the years after the secession of the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...

, the Conservatives
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 led the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

, followed by a surging Labour Party and a declining Liberal Party. The Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 also enjoyed their most prolonged period of success, though still failed to have more than 1 MP at any time.
Party 1924
United Kingdom general election, 1924
- Seats summary :- References :* F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987* - External links :* * *...

 
1923
United Kingdom general election, 1923
-Seats summary:-References:*F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987*-External links:***...

 
1922
United Kingdom general election, 1922
The United Kingdom general election of 1922 was held on 15 November 1922. It was the first election held after most of the Irish counties left the United Kingdom to form the Irish Free State, and was won by Andrew Bonar Law's Conservatives, who gained an overall majority over Labour, led by John...

% Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats % Popular vote Seats
Agricultural Party
Agricultural Party
The Agricultural Party was a minor political party in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1931 the Norfolk Farmers' Party but changed its name one week after its formation...

 
- - - - 0.2 0
Belfast Labour Party
Belfast Labour Party
The Belfast Labour Party was a political party in Belfast, Ireland from 1892 until 1924.The first socialist party in Ireland, it was founded in 1892, affiliated to the British Labour Representation Committee in 1900 and remained attached to the UK Labour Party which subsequently evolved.Labour ran...

 
0.2 0 - - - -
Communist
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

 
0.2 1 0.2 0 0.2 1
Constitutionalist  1.2 7 0.1 0 0.1 1
Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 
46.8 412 38.0 258 38.5 344
Independent  0.2 2 0.3 2 0.8 3
Independent Conservative 0.0 0 0.1 0 0.9 3
Indepdendent Labour 0.0 0 0.2 0 0.1 1
Indepdendent Liberal - - 0.1 1 0.1 1
Independent Nationalist - - - - 0.1 0
Irish Nationalist
Nationalist Party (Ireland)
The Nationalist Party was a term commonly used to describe a number of parliamentary political parties and constituency organisations supportive of Home Rule for Ireland from 1874 to 1922...

 
0.0 1 0.4 3 0.4 3
Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 
33.3 151 30.7 191 29.7 142
Labour Party (Northern Ireland)
Northern Ireland Labour Party
The Northern Ireland Labour Party was an Irish political party which operated from 1924 until 1987.In 1913 the British Labour Party resolved to give the recently formed Irish Labour Party exclusive organising rights in Ireland...

 
0.1 0 - - - -
Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...

 
17.8 40 29.7 158 18.9 62
National Liberal
National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)
The National Liberal Party was a liberal political party in the United Kingdom from 1922 to 1923. It was led by David Lloyd George and was, at the time, separate to the original Liberal Party.-History:...

 
- - - - 9.9 53
Scottish Prohibition
Scottish Prohibition Party
The Scottish Prohibition Party was a minor Scottish political party which advocated alcohol prohibition.The party was founded in 1901. In its early years, Bob Stewart acted as the party's full-time organiser...

 
0.1 1 0.1 1 0.1 1
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

0.2 0
- - -
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