25 October 1951 1955 → 9 October 1940 25 October 1935 315 seats 9 seats, 9.1% Start date October 25, 1951 Location United Kingdom | Turnout 82.6% (1.3%) 298 seats (total strength) 315 seats 321 (total strength) 295 End date 1951 | |
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Winner Winston Churchill | ||
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. Labour called the election for 25 October 1951 hoping to increase their majority.
Contents
Background
Clement Attlee had decided to call the election after the King's concerns over leaving the country to go on his Commonwealth tour in 1952 with a government that had such a slim majority that there was danger of a change of government in his absence. (As it transpired the King became too ill to travel and delegated the tour to his daughter Princess Elizabeth shortly before his death in February 1952.)
The Labour government, which by now had implemented most of its 1945 manifesto, was now beginning to lose many cabinet ministers such as Ernest Bevin and Stafford Cripps due to old age. The Conservatives however, due to the previous year's election, looked fresher, with more new MPs.
Campaign
As Labour began to have some policy splits during the election campaign, the Conservatives ran an efficient campaign that was well funded and orchestrated. Their manifesto Britain Strong and Free stressed that safeguarding "our traditional way of life" was integral to the Conservative purpose. They did not propose to dismantle the welfare state or the National Health Service which the Labour Government had established. As for the Liberals, the poor election results in 1950 only got worse.
Four candidates were returned unopposed, all in Northern Ireland. This was the last general election in which any candidates were returned unopposed, although there have since been unopposed by-elections.
The subsequent Labour defeat was significant for several reasons: the party polled almost a quarter of a million votes more than the Conservatives and their National Liberal allies combined, won the most votes that Labour had ever won (as of 2015) and won the most votes of any political party in any election in British political history, a record not surpassed until the Conservative Party's victory in 1992. Despite this, it was the Conservatives who formed the next government with a majority of 17. Under the first past the post electoral system, many Labour votes were "wasted" as part of large majorities for MPs in safe seats rather than into holding onto marginal seats. It should also be noted that most of Labour's overall popular vote margin can be accounted for as being the votes not polled by the Conservative's Ulster Unionist allies in the four constituencies (all safe UUP seats) in which they were unopposed - the UUP would poll 166,400 votes in these four constituencies four years later. This was the second of three elections in the 20th century where a party lost the popular vote but won the most seats, the others being 1929 and February 1974; it also happened in 1874.
Result
Total votes cast: 28,596,594. All parties shown. Conservative result includes the Ulster Unionists.
1 The National Liberals were in alliance with the Conservatives, bringing total Conservative strength to 321 seats (51.36%); votes total 13,717,850 (47.97%).
Votes summary
Headline Swing: 1.13% to Conservative