1950 United Kingdom general election

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1950 United Kingdom general election
← 1945 23 February 1950 1951 →
All 625 seats in the House of Commons
313 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout83.9% Increase11.1%
  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[a]
 Woodford Montgomeryshire
Last election 393 seats, 47.7% 208 seats, 39.1%[b] 12 seats, 9.0%
Seats won 315 298[note 1] 9
Seat change Decrease78 Increase90 Decrease3
Popular vote 13,226,176 12,494,404 2,621,487
Percentage 46.1% 43.4% 9.1%
Swing Decrease1.6% Increase4.3% Increase0.1%
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election

Clement Attlee
Labour

Prime Minister after election

Clement Attlee
Labour

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever to be held after a full term of

university constituencies. The government's 1945 lead over the Conservative Party shrank dramatically, and Labour was returned to power but with an overall majority reduced from 146 to just 5. There was a 2.8% national swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats. Labour called another general election in 1951
, which the Conservative Party won.

Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage,[1] and representing an increase of more than 11% in comparison to 1945.

It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although the footage was not recorded.

Nuffield College. The first election night programme ran from 10:45 pm until just after 1:00 am.[2]

Background

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 were abolished, and there were over 170 major alterations to constituencies across the country. Parliament was dissolved on 3 February 1950.[3]

Campaign

The Conservatives, having recovered from their landslide election defeat in 1945, accepted most of the

class struggle.[5]

One of the major election issues was the rationing still in effect on petrol, confectionery and meats over five years after the end of the war. The Conservative Party promised to phase out rationing while Labour campaigned for its continuation.[6]

Analysis showed that Labour suffered huge losses of seats due to a “revolt of the suburbs”, with substantial swings against them among

Home Counties, Essex and Middlesex. The effects of the Labour government's austerity, and inflation had hit middle income voters hard. In particular, rationing of basic foods like bread and powdered egg were incredibly unpopular. While campaigning in Leicester, Attlee was met with “catcalls” and chants of “vermin” while Hugh Gaitskell sensed there was “a collection of grievances among the lower middle class and middle class” against Labour.[4]

The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any general election since

losing their deposits. In the event, the strategy only succeeded in causing a very marginal increase in the overall Liberal vote over the previous election (albeit it was still their best popular vote percentage since 1929); the number of votes-per-candidate declined sharply, resulting in them losing a further three seats from their already-disappointing 1945 showing. A total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record number[7][page needed] until the 2015 general election, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits at the general election held in that year.[8]

Results

Despite losing 78 seats, the Labour Party won an overall majority of 5 seats, down from 146 in the previous election, while their vote share slightly declined. The Conservatives saw a resurgence in their support, gaining an additional 90 seats and saw their vote share improve by more than 4%.

Prominent personalities entering Parliament in this election included Edward Heath (Bexley), Jo Grimond (Orkney and Shetland), Enoch Powell (Wolverhampton South West), Reginald Maudling (Barnet) and Iain Macleod (Enfield West).

Scottish politician

West Fife seat to Labour; he was the last MP in Parliament for the Communist Party of Great Britain
.

The election began the fractionalization of the Labour Party into

Gaitskellite factions after Hugh Gaitskell blamed Aneurin Bevan for their party's disappointing performance, leading to a growing rift between the two.[9]

UK General Election 1950
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Labour Clement Attlee 617 315 −78 50.4 46.1 13,266,176 −1.6
  Conservative Winston Churchill 619 298 +90 47.7 43.4 12,492,404 +4.3
  Liberal Clement Davies 475 9 3 6 −3 1.4 9.1 2,621,487 +0.1
  Communist Harry Pollitt 100 0 0 2 −2 0.3 91,765 −0.1
  Nationalist James McSparran 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 65,211 −0.2
 
Irish Labour
 William Norton 2 0 0 0 0 0.2 52,715 N/A
  Independent N/A 15 0 0 0 0 0.2 50,299 −0.4
 
Independent Labour
 N/A 6 0 0 0 0 0.1 26,395 −0.2
 
Ind. Conservative
 N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.1 24,732 −0.1
  Sinn Féin Paddy McLogan 2 0 0 0 0 0.1 23,362 N/A
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 7 0 0 0 0 0.1 17,580 +0.1
  Independent Liberal N/A 2 1 0 1 −1 0.2 0.1 15,066
  SNP Robert McIntyre 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 9,708 −0.1
 
Anti-Partition
 James McSparran 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,084 N/A
  Ind. Labour Party
David Gibson
 4 0 0 3 −3 0.0 4,112 −0.2
  Independent Liberal and Conservative N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,551 N/A
  National Independent N/A 1 0 0 2 −2 0.0 1,380 −0.3
 
Mudiad Gweriniaethol Cymru
 N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 613 N/A
  Social Credit John Hargrave 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 551 N/A
  United Socialist Guy Aldred 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 485
  Socialist (GB) N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 448
Total votes cast: 28,771,124. Turnout: 83.9%.[10][c]

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
 
 46.11%
Conservative
 
 43.42%
Liberal
 
 9.11%
Others
 
 1.36%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
 
 50.40%
Conservative
 
 47.68%
Liberal
 
 1.44%
Others
 
 0.48%

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Represented Limehouse until the election.
  2. ^ Conservatives, Unionists and UUP 197 seats, 36.2%; Liberal Nationals 11 seats, 2.9% (merged with Conservatives in 1947).
  3. ^ All parties shown. Conservative total includes Liberal National Party, (Scottish) Unionists and Ulster Unionists.
  1. ^ The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

References

  1. ^ Parliamentary Government in Britain, Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981, page 104
  2. ^ "General Election Results", The Radio Times (1375): 47, 17 February 1950, retrieved 27 March 2018 – via BBC Genome
  3. ^ "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Masters No More: Clement Attlee and the 'Revolt of the Suburbs'", The Critic, 23 February 2021, retrieved 25 February 2022
  5. ^ "1950: Labour majority slashed", BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 13 May 2018
  6. ISBN 978-0-7475-7985-4
  7. ^ De Groot 1993.
  8. ^ Liberal Democrats face soaring fines for failing to win enough votes - Spectator Blogs, archived from the original on 8 December 2015, retrieved 27 November 2015
  9. OCLC 489636152
    .
  10. ^ Voter turnout at UK general elections 1945–2015, UK Political Info

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1950 United Kingdom general election.

Manifestos

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