United Kingdom general election, 1923

6 December 1923

All 615 seats Constituency results 308 seats needed for a majority

Turnout	71.1%
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Stanley Baldwin	Ramsay MacDonald	H. H. Asquith
Party	Conservative	Labour	Liberal
Leader since	23 May 1923	21 November 1922	30 April 1908
Leader's seat	Bewdley	Aberavon	Paisley
Last election	344 seats, 38.5%	142 seats, 29.7%	62 seats, 18.9%
Seats won	258	191	158
Seat change	86	49	96
Popular vote	5,286,159	4,267,831	4,129,922
Percentage	38.0%	30.7%	29.7%
Swing	0.5%	1.0%	10.8%

PM before election

Stanley Baldwin
Conservative

Subsequent PM

Ramsay MacDonald
Labour

1922 election • MPs
1923 election • MPs
1924 election • MPs
1929 election • MPs

The United Kingdom general election of 1923 was held on Thursday 6 December 1923. The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, won the most seats, but Labour, led by Ramsay MacDonald, and H. H. Asquith's reunited Liberal Party gained enough to produce a hung parliament. It was the last UK general election in which a third party (the Liberals) won more than 100 seats, or received more than 26% of the vote.

As the election had been fought on the Conservative proposals for tariff reform, it was inevitable that they could not retain office. As a result, MacDonald formed the first ever Labour government with tacit support from the Liberals. Asquith's motivation for permitting Labour to enter power, rather than trying to bring the Liberals back into government, was that he hoped they would prove to be incompetent and quickly lose support. Being in a minority, MacDonald's government only lasted 10 months and another election was held in October 1924.

Overview

During 1923 the Ruhr crisis led to a growing feeling of German sympathy in Britain, with people increasingly fed up of international crises in Europe. By May 1923 the then-Prime Minister Bonar Law fell ill and resigned on 22 May,^[1] after just 209 days in office. He was replaced by Baldwin. Having only had an election just the year before, Baldwin's party had a comfortable majority in the Commons and could have waited another four years, but the government was concerned with unemployment and protectionism. He felt the need to receive a mandate from the people, which, if successful, would strengthen his grip on the Conservative party leadership.^[2]

The result however backfired on Baldwin, who lost a host of seats to Labour and the Liberals. For the first time in history, Labour would be in government.

Results

↓
258	191	158	8
Conservative	Labour	Liberal	O

UK General Election 1923
			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative	Stanley Baldwin	536	258			− 86	41.951	38.0	5,286,159	−0.5
	Labour	Ramsay MacDonald	427	191			+ 49	31.056	30.7	4,267,831	+1.0
	Liberal	H. H. Asquith	457	158			+ 96	25.691	29.7	4,129,922	+10.8
	Nationalist	Joseph Devlin	4	3	0	0	0	0.487	0.4	54,157	N/A
	Independent	N/A	6	2	0	1	− 1	0.325	0.3	36,802	−0.5
	Communist	Albert Inkpin	4	0	0	1	− 1		0.2	34,258	0.0
	Belfast Labour	David Robb Campbell	1	0	0	0	0		0.2	22,255	N/A
	Independent Labour	N/A	4	0	0	1	− 1		0.2	17,331	0.0
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	1	1	1	0		0.1	16,184	0.0
	Constitutionalist	N/A	1	0	0	1	− 1		0.1	15,500	0.0
	Independent Conservative	N/A	1	0	0	3	− 3		0.1	15,171	−0.8
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	1	0	0	0		0.1	12,877	0.0
	Christian Pacifist	N/A	1	1	0	0	0		0.0	570	N/A

Total number of votes cast: 13,909,017. Turnout 71.1%^[3] All parties shown. Conservatives include Ulster Unionists.

Votes summary

Popular vote

Conservative			38.01%
Labour			30.68%
Liberal			29.69%
Nationalist			0.39%
Independent			0.61%
Others			0.60%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Conservative			41.95%
Labour			31.06%
Liberal			25.69%
Nationalist			0.5%
Independent			0.49%
Others			0.31%

Constituency results

For a full list of the results by constituency, see Constituency election results in the United Kingdom general election, 1923.

References

↑ http://www.number10.gov.uk/history-and-tour/prime-ministers-in-history/andrew-bonar-law
↑ Paul W. Doerr, British foreign policy 1919-1939 p.75-76
↑ http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2008/rp08-012.pdf

F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979

External links

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