United Kingdom general election, 1950

United Kingdom general election, 1950
United Kingdom
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 Decrease 78 Increase 90 Decrease 3
Popular vote 13,226,176 12,494,404 2,621,487
Percentage 46.1% 43.4% 9.1%
Swing Decrease 3.6% Increase 4.3% Increase 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%

See also

References

External links

Manifestos

Notes

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