United Kingdom general election, 1935

United Kingdom general election, 1935
United Kingdom
14 November 1935

All 615 seats to the House of Commons
308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout 71.1%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee John Simon
Party Conservative Labour Liberal National
Leader since 23 May 1923 25 October 1935 5 October 1931
Leader's seat Bewdley Limehouse Spen Valley
Last election 473 seats, 55% 52 seats, 30.8% 35 seats, 3.7%
Seats won 386 154 33
Seat change Decrease 83 Increase 102 Decrease 2
Popular vote 10,025,083 7,984,988 784,608
Percentage 47.8% 38.0% 3.7%
Swing Decrease 7.2% Increase 7.4% Steady

  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Herbert Samuel Ramsay MacDonald James Maxton
Party Liberal National Labour Ind. Labour Party
Leader since 1931 24 August 1931 1934
Leader's seat Darwen (defeated) Seaham (defeated) Glasgow Bridgeton
Last election 33 seats, 6.5% 13 seats, 1.5% 3 seats, 1.2%
Seats won 21 8 4
Seat change Decrease 12 Decrease 5 Increase 1
Popular vote 1,414,010 321,028 136,208
Percentage 6.7% 1.5% 0.7%
Swing Decrease 0.3% Steady Decrease 0.5%

PM before election

Stanley Baldwin
Conservative

Subsequent PM

Stanley Baldwin
Conservative

1929 election MPs
1931 election MPs
1935 election MPs
1945 election MPs
1950 election MPs

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 Members, as before, were Conservatives, while the National Liberal vote held steady. The National Labour vote collapsed, and even its leader Ramsay MacDonald lost his seat.

Labour, under what was then regarded internally as the caretaker leadership of Clement Attlee, made large gains over their very poor showing in the 1931 general election. The Liberals continued their slow political collapse and lost further ground, with their leader Sir Herbert Samuel losing his own seat.

The Independent Labour Party stood entirely separately from Labour for the first time since 1895, having stood candidates unendorsed by Labour at the 1931 election and having disaffiliated fully from Labour in 1932. The Scottish National Party contested their first election, and the Communist Party gained their first parliamentary seat in almost ten years, West Fife.

The major election issues were the continuing unemployment problems and the role of the League of Nations, particularly as regarding the Empire of Japan.

No general elections were held during the Second World War until Allied victory was assured; hence the 1935 House sat until 1945. As a result, this parliament would see two leadership changes. Neville Chamberlain took over as Prime Minister and Conservative leader in 1937. He in turn resigned in 1940, when the office of Prime Minister passed to Winston Churchill, who linked the three main parties in the House of Commons in an all-party unity government for the duration of the Second World War.

Results

UK General Election 1935
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Standing Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
National Government
  Conservative Stanley Baldwin 515 387 5 88 − 83 62.8 47.8 10,025,083 − 7.2
  Liberal National John Simon 44 33 5 7 − 2 5.4 3.7 784,608 0.0
  National Labour Ramsay MacDonald 20 8 1 6 − 5 1.3 1.5 321,028 0.0
  National N/A 4 1 1 4 − 3 0.5 0.3 53,189 − 0.2
  National Government (total) Stanley Baldwin 583 429 69.9 53.3 11,183,908
Opposition
  Labour Clement Attlee 552 154 105 3 + 102 25.0 38.0 7,984,988 + 7.4
  Liberal Herbert Samuel 161 21 3 18 − 11 3.4 6.7 1,414,010 − 0.3
  Ind. Labour Party James Maxton 17 4 1 0 + 1 0.7 0.7 136,208 − 0.5
  Nationalist T. J. Campbell 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 50,747 − 0.1
  Independent Republican N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 46,715 N/A
  Independent National N/A 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 33,527 N/A
  SNP Alexander MacEwen 8 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 29,517 0.0
  Independent Conservative N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 27,721 N/A
  Communist Harry Pollitt 2 1 1 0 0 0.3 0.1 27,177 − 0.2
  Independent N/A 8 2 1 0 0 0.2 0.1 17,113 + 0.1
  Independent Labour N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 14,867 0.0
  Liverpool Protestant H. D. Longbottom 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 6,677 0.0
  Independent Progressive N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 6,421 N/A
  Social Credit John Hargrave 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 3,642 N/A
  Plaid Cymru Saunders Lewis 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 2,534 0.0
  Independent Liberal N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 2,525 0.0
  Agriculturalist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,771 N/A
  Christian Socialist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,480 N/A

Total votes cast: 20,991,488. Turnout 71.1%.[1] All parties shown. Conservatives include the Ulster and Scottish Unionists. Seats and votes won by the Independent Labour Party (ILP) are compared with seats and votes won by the official ILP candidates among the ILP candidates at the 1931 election who ran without national Labour Party endorsement.

Votes summary

Popular vote
National Government
 
53.3%
Conservative
 
47.8%
Labour
 
38%
Liberal
 
6.7%
Liberal National
 
3.7%
National Labour
 
1.5%
Independent Labour
 
0.7%
Others
 
1.3%
 
 

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
National Government
 
69.9%
Conservative
 
62.8%
Labour
 
25%
Liberal
 
3.4%
Liberal National
 
5.4%
National Labour
 
1.3%
Independent Labour
 
0.7%
Others
 
1%
 
 

Constituency Results

These are available on the Political Science Resources Elections Database, a link to which is given below.

Further reading

See also

References

External links

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