1950 United Kingdom general election

1950 United Kingdom general election

← 1945 23 February 1950 1951 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 625 seats in the House of Commons 313 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	83.9%, 11.1%
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 Woodford Montgomeryshire Last election 393 seats, 47.7% 208 seats, 39.1%[a] 12 seats, 9.0% Seats won 315 298 9 Seat change 78 90 3 Popular vote 13,226,176 12,494,404 2,621,487 Percentage 46.1% 43.4% 9.1% Swing 1.6% 4.3% 0.1%
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election Clement Attlee Labour Appointed Prime Minister Clement Attlee Labour

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first ever general election to be held after a full term of Labour government. The election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950. Despite polling over 700,000 votes more than the Conservatives,^[b] and receiving more votes than they had during the 1945 general election,^[1] Labour obtained a slim majority of just five seats—a stark contrast to 1945, when they had achieved a comfortable 146-seat majority.^[2] There was a national swing towards the Conservatives, whose performance in terms of popular vote was dramatically better than in 1945. Labour called another general election in 1951.

Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage.^[3]

It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although the footage was not recorded. Richard Dimbleby anchored for the BBC Television coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 general elections. On this occasion, Dimbleby was joined in the BBC Lime Grove Studios by R. B. McCallum, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and author of The British General Election of 1945 and David Butler, research student of Nuffield College. The first ever election night programme ran from 10:45 pm until just after 1:00 am.^[4]

1935 election MPs

1945 election MPs

1950 election MPs

1951 election MPs

1955 election MPs

Contents

• 
  1 Background
  


• 
  2 Campaign
  


• 
  3 Results
  
  
  
  • 
    3.1 Votes summary
    
  
  
  • 
    3.2 Seats summary
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  4 See also
  


• 
  5 Notes
  


• 
  6 References
  
  
  
  • 
    6.1 Sources
    
  
  
  
  


• 
  7 External links
  
  
  
  • 
    7.1 Manifestos
    
  
  
  
  

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.

Campaign

Both the Conservative and Labour parties entered the campaign positively.

The Conservatives, having recovered from their landslide 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.^{[clarification needed]} 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 Conservatives. The Liberals essentially viewed the struggle between the two parties on this issue as a class struggle.^[5]

The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any general election since 1929. Liberal Party leader Clement Davies felt that the party had been at a disadvantage at the 1945 general 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 fifty candidates 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^{[6][page needed]} until 2015, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits at the general election held in that year.^[7]

Results

↓ 

315	298	12
Labour	Conservative	O

The Labour Party won an overall majority of 5 seats, down from 146 in the previous election.

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

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	495	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		0.1	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%.^[8][c]

Votes summary

Popular vote Labour   46.1% Conservative   43.4% Liberal   9.1% Communist   0.3% Nationalist   0.2% Others   1.1%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Labour   50.4% Conservative   47.7% Liberal   1.4% Nationalist   0.3% Others   0.2%

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1950

Notes

1. 
   ^ Conservatives, Unionists and UUP 197 seats, 36.2%; National Liberals 11 seats, 2.9%.
   


2. 
   ^ Including allies of the Conservatives such as the Unionists and the National Liberals.
   


3. 
   ^ All parties shown. Conservative total includes Liberal National Party, (Scottish) Unionists and Ulster Unionists.
   

References

1. 
   ^ 1950: Labour limps home, BBC News, retrieved 13 May 2018.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
   


2. 
   ^ 1945: Labour landslide buries Churchill, BBC News, retrieved 13 May 2018
   


3. 
   ^ Parliamentary Government in Britain, Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981, page 104
   


4. 
   ^ General Election Results (1375), 17 February 1950, p. 47, retrieved 27 March 2018 – via BBC Genome
   


5. 
   ^ 1950: Labour majority slashed, BBC News, 5 April 2005, retrieved 13 May 2018
   


6. 
   ^ De Groot 1993.
   


7. 
   ^ Archived copy, archived from the original on 8 December 2015, retrieved 27 November 2015CS1 maint: Archived copy as title (link)
   


8. 
   ^ Voter turnout at UK general elections 1945–2015, UK Political Info
   

Sources

.mw-parser-output .refbegin{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul{list-style-type:none;margin-left:0}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>ul>li,.mw-parser-output .refbegin-hanging-indents>dl>dd{margin-left:0;padding-left:3.2em;text-indent:-3.2em;list-style:none}.mw-parser-output .refbegin-100{font-size:100%}

• 
  Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  


• 
  De Groot, Gerard J. (1993), Liberal Crusader: The Life of Sir Archibald Sinclair, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, ISBN 978-1-85065-182-6
  


• 
  Nicholas, H. (1951). The British general election of 1950. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-77865-0.
  

External links

• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979

Manifestos

• 
  This is the Road: The Conservative and Unionist Party's Policy, 1950 Conservative Party manifesto


• 
  Let Us Win Through Together: A Declaration of Labour Policy for the Consideration of the Nation, 1950 Labour Party manifesto


• 
  No Easy Way: Britain's Problems and the Liberal Answers, 1950 Liberal Party manifesto

v t e Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014
Referendums	1975 2011 2016

This page is only for reference, If you need detailed information, please check here