United Kingdom general election, 1950

23 February 1950

All 625 seats in the House of Commons 313 seats needed for a majority

Turnout	83.9%
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Clement Attlee	Winston Churchill	Clement Davies
Party	Labour	Conservative	Liberal
Leader since	25 October 1935	9 October 1940	2 August 1945
Leader's seat	Walthamstow West	Woodford	Montgomeryshire
Last election	393 seats, 49.7%	197 seats, 36.2% (Conservatives) + 11 seats, 2.9% (National Liberals)	12 seats, 9.0%
Seats won	315	298^*	9
Seat change	78	90	3
Popular vote	13,226,176	12,494,404	2,621,487
Percentage	46.1%	43.4%	9.1%
Swing	3.6%	4.3%	0.1%

Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. (Map does not show results in Northern Ireland)

^* Including Scottish Unionists, Ulster Unionists, and National Liberals. The National Liberals had united with the Conservatives at the constituency level in 1947.

PM before election

Clement Attlee
Labour

Subsequent PM

Clement Attlee
Labour

1935 election • MPs
1945 election • MPs
1950 election • MPs
1951 election • MPs

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever general election to be held after a full term of a Labour government. The election was held on 23 February 1950. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives,^[1] and receiving more votes than they had during the 1945 election,^[2] Labour obtained a slim majority of just five seats — a stark contrast to 1945, when they had achieved a 146-seat majority.^[3] Labour called another general election in 1951.

Significant changes since the 1945 general election included the abolition of plural voting by the Representation of the People Act 1948, and a major reorganisation of constituencies by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Eleven new English seats were created and six abolished, and there were over 170 major alterations to constituencies across the country. Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage. It was also the first election to be covered on TV, although the footage was not recorded.

Both the Conservative and Labour parties entered the campaign positively. The Conservatives, having recovered from their heavy election defeat in 1945, accepted most of the nationalisation that had taken place under the Attlee government, which included the NHS and the mixed economy. The campaign essentially focused on the possible future nationalisation of other sectors and industries, which was supported by the Labour party, and opposed by the Tories. The Liberals essentially viewed the struggle between the two parties on this issue as a class struggle.^[4] The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any election since 1929. Liberal leader Clement Davies felt that the party had been at a disadvantage at the 1945 election when they ran fewer candidates than needed to form a government. Davies arranged for the cost of running extra candidates to be offset by the party taking out insurance with Lloyd's of London against more than 50 candidates losing their deposits. In the event, a total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record number^[5] until 2015, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits in the general election held in May.^[6]

Results

UK general election 1950
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	Clement Attlee	617	315			− 78	50.4	46.1	13,266,176
	Conservative	Winston Churchill	495	246			+ 81	39.4	35.2	10,140,818
	Unionist	Viscount Stuart of Findhorn	57	26			+ 2	4.2	3.5	1,013,909
	UUP	Basil Brooke	12	10			+ 2	1.6	1.2	352,334
	Liberal	Clement Davies	475	9	3	6	− 3	1.4	9.1	2,621,487
	Liberal National	John Maclay	55	16^*			+ 5	2.6	3.4	985,343
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	100	0	0	2	− 2		0.3	91,765
	Nationalist	James McSparran	2	2	0	0	0		0.2	65,211
	Irish Labour	William Norton	2	0	0	0	0		0.2	52,715
	Independent	N/A	15	0	0	0	0		0.2	50,299
	Independent Labour	N/A	6	0	0	0	0		0.1	26,395
	Independent Conservative	N/A	3	0	0	0	0		0.1	24,732
	Sinn Féin	Paddy McLogan	2	0	0	0	0		0.1	23,362
	Plaid Cymru	Gwynfor Evans	7	0	0	0	0		0.1	17,580
	Independent Liberal	N/A	2	1	0	1	− 1		0.1	15,066
	SNP	Robert McIntyre	3	0	0	0	0		0.0	9,708
	Anti-Partition	James McSparran	4	0	0	0	0		0.1	5,084
	Ind. Labour Party	David Gibson	4	0	0	3	− 3		0.0	4,112
	Independent Liberal and Conservative	N/A	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	1,551
	National Independent	N/A	1	0	0	2	− 2		0.0	1,380
	Mudiad Gweriniaethol Cymru	None	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	613
	Social Credit	John Hargrave	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	551
	United Socialist	Guy Aldred	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	485
	Socialist (GB)	None	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	448

Total votes cast: 28,771,124. Turnout 83.9%.^[7] All parties shown

Votes summary

Popular vote

Labour			46.1%
Conservative			40.0%
Liberal			9.1%
Liberal National			3.4%
Nationalist			0.2%
Others			1.1%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Labour			50.40%
Conservative			47.68%
Liberal			1.44%
Nationalist			0.32%
Others			0.16%

References

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
Nicholas, H. (1951). The British general election of 1950. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-77865-0.

External links

United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

Manifestos

This is the Road: The Conservative and Unionist Party's Policy- 1950 Conservative manifesto.
Let Us Win Through Together: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation - 1950 Labour Party manifesto.
No Easy Way: Britain's Problems and the Liberal Answers - 1950 Liberal Party manifesto.

Notes

↑ Including allies of the Conservatives such as the Unionists and the National Liberals.
↑
↑
↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/basics/4393273.stm
↑ Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair by Gerard De Groot
↑ http://blogs.new.spectator.co.uk/2015/05/liberal-democrats-face-soaring-fines-for-failing-to-win-enough-votes/
↑ http://www.ukpolitical.info/Turnout45.htm

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