With the upcoming General Election in the UK, it might be interesting to look at the Elections and changes in suffrage in UK history.
2017
Not yet known (as of 7 June 2017)
2015
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
David Cameron
Theresa May
Majority: 16
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
2011
Fixed Term Parliament Act – 5 year Parliaments which requires a Parliamentary vote for an election to be called outside of this. Prior to this the Prime Minister could call an Election at will.
2010
Victory: Conservative (coalition with liberal Democrats)
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
David Cameron
Majority: 78 (coalition)
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
2005
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Tony Blair
Gordon Brown
Majority: 66
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
2001
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Tony Blair
Majority: 167
1997
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Tony Blair
Majority: 179
1992
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Sir John Major
Majority: 21
1987
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Margaret Thatcher
Sir John Major
Majority: 102
1983
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Margaret Thatcher
Majority: 144
1979
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Margaret Thatcher
Majority: 43
1974 (October)
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Harold Wilson
James Callaghan
Majority: 3
1974 (February)
Victory: Labour (minority government)
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
Harold Wilson
Majority: -33
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1970
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Edward Heath
Majority: 30
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1969
Representation of the People Act 1969 gave the vote to the adult population over 18 years old.
1966
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Harold Wilson
Majority: 98
1964
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Harold Wilson
Majority: 4
1959
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Harold Macmillan
Sir Alec Douglas-Home
Majority: 100
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1955
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Sir Anthony Eden
Harold Macmillan
Majority: 60
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1951
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Sir Winston Churchill
Sir Anthony Eden
Majority: 17
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1950
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Clement Attlee
Majority: 146
Image: By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
1948
Representation of the People Act 1948 abolished plural voting, university constituencies and two-member constituencies.
Plural voting allowed people to vote in a university constituency, where they owned property and the constituency where their home was located.
1945
Victory: Labour
Prime Minister(s):
Clement Attlee
Majority: 146
1939 to 1945
Elections were not held due to the Second World War.
1935
Victory: Conservative (National Government) / Conservative (Wartime Coalition)
Prime Minister(s):
Stanley Baldwin (National Government)
Neville Chamberlain (National Government)
Sir Winston Churchill (Wartime Coalition)
Sir Winston Churchill (Caretaker Government)
Majority: 242 (National Government) / 609 (Wartime Coalition)
The National Governments were effectively a coalition of all of the major political parties.
Image: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H12967 / CC-BY-SA 3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 de
1931
Victory: National Labour (National Government)
Prime Minister(s):
Ramsay MacDonald
Majority: 492
1929
Victory: Labour
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
Ramsay MacDonald
Majority: -42
This was known as the “flapper” election as women aged 21 could vote for the first time. “Flappers” being a generation of young women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, drank excessively, smoked, had causal sex and generally flouted what was considered acceptable behaviour at the time.
1928
Representation of the People Act 1928 gave the vote to the adult population over 21 years old.
1924
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Stanley Baldwin
Majority: 210
1923
Victory: Conservative
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
Stanley Baldwin (resigned almost immediately)
Ramsay MacDonald (in coalition with the Liberals)
Majority: -98
This was the last election where the third placed party gained more than 100 seats. Ramsay MacDonald formed the first Labour Government.
1922
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Bonar Law
Stanley Baldwin
Majority: 74
1918
Victory: Liberal (Coalition Government)
Prime Minister(s):
David Lloyd George (Liberal)
Bonar Law (Conservative – immediately dissolved Parliament on appointment in 1922)
Majority: 238
The Coalition was planned as part of the election campaign and a letter known as the “Coalition Coupon” was sent to parliamentary candidates who were seen as patriotic and not anti-war or pacifist. The intent being to form a strong government intent on wreaking revenge on Germany and its allies following the end of the First World War.
The “Coupon” read as follows:
‘Dear ……
We have much pleasure in recognizing you as the Coalition Candidate for (name of constituency). We have every hope that the Electors will return you as their Representative in Parliament to support the government in the great task which lies before it.
Yours truly,
D. Lloyd George
A. Bonar Law’
1918
Representation of the People Act 1918 gave the vote to men over 21 years old and women over 30 years old.
1914 to 1918
Elections were not held due to the First World War.
1911
The Parliament Act 1911 changed the maximum term of a Parliament from seven to five years.
1910 (December)
Victory: Liberal (with support from the Irish Parliamentary Party)
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
Herbert Henry Asquith
David Lloyd George
Majority: -126
This was the last election which was not won by either the Conservative or Labour Parties.
1910 (January)
Victory: Liberal (with support from the Irish Parliamentary Party)
(hung parliament)
Prime Minister(s):
Herbert Henry Asquith
Majority: -122
1906
Victory: Liberal
Prime Minister(s):
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
Herbert Henry Asquith
Majority: 129
1900
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
The Marquess of Salisbury
Arthur Balfour
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (Liberal – immediately dissolved Parliament on appointment)
Majority: 135
This was the first election in which the Labour Representation Committee (later the Labour Party) participated. Keir Hardie and Richard Bell were the only successful candidates.
It was also the first election in which Sir Winston Churchill was successfully elected to the House of Commons and the last of the Victorian era.
1895
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
The Marquess of Salisbury
Majority: 153
1892
Victory: Liberal (with support from the Irish Parliamentary Party) – Conservatives actually won most seats
(minority government)
Prime Minister(s):
The Marquess of Salisbury (resigned at the start of the Parliament and immediately dissolved Parliament when appointed in 1895)
William Ewart Gladstone
The Earl of Rosebury
Majority: 135
The first Asian MP, Dadabnai Naoroji, was successfully elected in this election.
1886
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
The Marquess of Salisbury
Majority: 116
1885
Victory: Conservative (with support from the Irish Parliamentary Party)
Prime Minister(s):
The Marquess of Salisbury
William Ewart Gladstone (Liberal)
Majority: -172
1884
Representation of the People Act 1884 and the Redistribution Act 1885 extended the voting qualifications to rural in addition to urban areas.
All men owning property or paying annual rent valued £10 or greater were now eligible.
This increased the electorate to 5.5 million.
This breaks down as follows (as a percentage of the population):
Women: 0%
England and Wales: 66% of adult males
Scotland: 60% of adult males
Ireland: 50% of adult males
This Act was particularly important in Scotland where many crofters qualified enabling them to ultimately put an end to the Highland Clearances.
1880
Victory: Liberal
Prime Minister(s):
William Ewart Gladstone
The Marquess of Salisbury (Conservative)
Majority: 51
1874
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
Benjamin Disraeli
Majority: 49
1868
Victory: Liberal
Prime Minister(s):
William Ewart Gladstone
Majority: 115
1867
The Reform Act 1867 gave the vote to a significant part of the urban working class. The numbers were far higher than intended by the Government but many large, organised demonstrations that were reported as “riots” forced Parliament into significant change.
Many boroughs were reduced or abolished for corruption, or for rebalancing power and many new boroughs were enfranchised.
The electorate rose from one million to two million adult males (of a population of seven million adult males).
1865
Victory: Liberal
Prime Minister(s):
The Viscount Palmerston (Died in office)
The Earl Russell (resigned June 1866)
The Earl of Derby (Conservative)
Benjamin Disraeli
Majority: 81
1859
Victory: Conservative
Prime Minister(s):
The Earl of Derby (resigned June 1859)
The Viscount Palmerston (Liberal)
Majority: 59
1857
Victory: Whig
Prime Minister(s):
The Viscount Palmerston (resigned February 1858)
The Earl of Derby (Conservative)
Majority: 100
The Whig Party was ultimately superseded by a coalition of Whigs, free trade Tories and free trade radicals who became the Liberal Party.
1852
Victory: Conservative
(minority government)
Prime Minister(s):
The Earl of Derby (resigned December 1852)
The Earl of Aberdeen (Peelite – resigned January 1855)
The Viscount Palmerston (Whig)
Majority: 7
1847
Victory: Whig
Prime Minister(s):
Lord John Russell (continued in Government due to splits in the new Conservative Party)
The Earl of Derby (Conservative)
Majority: -72
The election also witnessed the election of Britain’s first Jewish MP; the Liberal Lionel de Rothschild in the City of London. Members being sworn in were however required to swear the Christian Oath of Allegiance, meaning Rothschild was unable actually to take his seat until the passage of the Jews Relief Act in 1858.
1841
Victory: Whig
Prime Minister(s):
The Viscount Melbourne (resigned August 1841)
Sir Robert Peel (Conservative – resigned June 1846)
Lord John Russell (Whig)
Majority: 77
The electorate consisted of 3.17% of the population and this election was considered as being one of the most corrupt in British Parliamentary history.
The Westminster Review wrote that the :
“annals of parliamentary warfare contained no page more stained with the foulness of corruption and falsehood than that which relates the history of the general election in the year 1841.”
1837
Victory: Whig
Prime Minister(s):
The Viscount Melbourne
Majority: 29
This election was the first in the reign of Queen Victoria.
1835
Victory: Conservative
(minority government)
Prime Minister(s):
Sir Robert Peel (resigned April 1835)
The Viscount Melbourne
Majority: -113
1832
Victory: Whig
Prime Minister(s):
The Earl Grey
The Viscount Melbourne (Whig – dismissed by the King November 1834)
The Duke of Wellington (Tory)
Sir Robert Peel (Conservative)
Majority: 225
1832
The Reform Act 1832 gave the vote to copyhold landowners and long-term leaseholders and higher value tenants. Most significantly the number of boroughs and the representation of MPs was changed.
Prior to this, there were many rotten boroughs where the landowner controlled the electorate. A borough with only a few electors could have two MPs, for example.
Charles Howard, Duke of Norfolk, controlled at least eleven boroughs.
The electorate increased from about 500,000 to 813,000 (about 20% of adult males).
Prior to 1832, the general elections could hardly be described as a democratic activity due to Rotten Boroughs and the restricted electorate.