1951 United Kingdom general election

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1951 United Kingdom general election
← 1950 25 October 1951 1955 →
All 625 seats in the House of Commons
313 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout 82.6%, Decrease1.3%
  First party Second party Third party
  150x150px 150x150px 150x150px
Leader Winston Churchill Clement Attlee Clement Davies
Party Conservative Labour Liberal
Leader since 9 October 1940 25 October 1935 2 August 1945
Leader's seat Woodford Walthamstow West Montgomeryshire
Last election 298 seats, 43.4% 315 seats, 46.1% 9 seats, 9.1%
Seats won 321 295 6
Seat change Increase23 Decrease20 Decrease3
Popular vote 13,717,851 13,948,385 730,546
Percentage 48.0% 48.8% 2.5%
Swing Increase4.6% Increase2.7% Decrease6.6%
380px
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election

Clement Attlee
Labour

 Appointed Prime Minister

Winston Churchill
Conservative

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. The Labour government called a snap election for Thursday 25 October 1951 hoping to increase their parliamentary majority. However, despite winning the popular vote and achieving both their highest-ever total vote and percentage vote share, Labour were defeated by the Conservative Party. This election marked the return of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister, and the beginning of the Labour Party's thirteen-year spell in opposition. This was the final general election to be held with George VI as monarch, as he died the following year on 6 February and was succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

The 1951 general election was the second general election to be covered on BBC Television. On election night, the results were televised from the BBC Lime Grove Studios in London. Graham Hutton, David Butler and H.G. Nicholas headed the election night coverage from 10.15pm until 4.00am on the television service. On the following day, television coverage started at 10.00am and continued throughout the day until 5.00pm.[1]

Background

Clement Attlee had decided to call the election because of the King's concerns that, when leaving the country to go on his Commonwealth tour in 1952 with a government that had such a slim majority, there would be a possibility of a change of government in his absence.[2] (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 election manifesto, was beginning to lose cabinet ministers, such as Ernest Bevin and Stafford Cripps due to old age. The Conservatives, however, after the previous year's election, appeared fresher, with more new MPs.

Campaign

Labour's manifesto stated that the party "proud of its record, sure in its policies—confidently asks the electors to renew its mandate". It identified four key tasks facing the United Kingdom which it would tackle: the need to work for peace, the need to work to "maintain full employment and to increase production", the need to reduce cost of living, and the need to "build a just society". The manifesto argued that only a Labour government could achieve these tasks.[3] It also contrasted the Britain of 1951 with that of the interwar years (when there had largely been Conservative-led governments), saying this period saw "mass-unemployment; mass fear; mass misery".[4]

While Labour began to have some policy divisions 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. Significantly, they did not propose to dismantle the welfare state or the National Health Service which the Labour government had established.[5] The manifesto did, however, promise to 'stop all further nationalisation' and to repeal the Steel Act introduced by the Labour Government.[6]

As for the Liberals, the poor election results in 1950 only worsened; unable to get the same insurance against losses of deposits that they did the previous year, they were able to field only 109 candidates, and thus posted the worst general election result in the party's history, getting just 2.5% of the vote and winning only six seats. Their popular vote total has not fallen so low since, though their lowest total of six seats would be matched in several future elections.[7]

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.[8]

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 has ever won (as of 2019); 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 seats. Under the first past the post electoral system, many Labour votes were "wasted" as part of large majorities for MPs in safe seats.

Additionally, most of Labour's overall popular vote margin can be accounted for as being the votes not polled by the Conservatives'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 fourth of five elections in the twentieth century where a party lost the popular vote, but won the most seats. The others were January 1910, December 1910, 1929 and February 1974; it also happened in the 1874 election. Furthermore, the 1951 and 1874 elections are the only two examples of a political force winning an overall majority while losing the popular vote.

Results

↓ 
321 295 6 3
Conservative Labour Lib O
UK General Election 1951
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Standing Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
  Labour Clement Attlee 617 295 2 22 −20 47.2 48.8 13,948,883 +2.7
  Conservative Winston Churchill 617 321 23 1 +22 51.4 48.0 13,717,850 +4.6
  Liberal Clement Davies 109 6 1 4 −3 1.0 2.6 730,546 −6.5
  Independent Nationalist N/A 3 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.3 92,787 N/A
  Labour Party William Norton 1 1 1 0 +1 0.2 0.1 33,174 −0.1
  Communist Harry Pollitt 10 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 21,640 −0.2
  Independent N/A 6 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 19,791 N/A
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 10,920 −0.1
  SNP Robert McIntyre 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 7,299 0.0
  Independent Conservative N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 5,904 N/A
  Ind. Labour Party Fred Barton 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 4,057 0.0
  British Empire P. J. Ridout 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,643 N/A
  Anti-Partition James McSparran 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,340 0.0
  United Socialist Guy Aldred 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 411 0.0

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Total votes cast: 28,596,594.[lower-alpha 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%).

Government's new majority 17
Total votes cast 28,596,594
Turnout 82.6%

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
  
 48.78%
Conservative
  
 47.97%
Liberal
  
 2.55%
Independent
  
 0.43%
Others
  
 0.26%

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Headline swing: 1.13% to Conservative

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Conservative
  
 51.36%
Labour
  
 47.20%
Liberal
  
 0.96%
Others
  
 0.48%

Transfers of seats

All comparisons are with the 1950 election.[lower-alpha 2]

From To No. Seats
Labour Labour (HOLD) many
Liberal 1 Bolton West
Conservative 21 Barry, Battersea South, Bedfordshire South, Berwick and East Lothian, Bolton East, Buckingham, Conway, Darlington, Doncaster, Dulwich, King's Lynn, Manchester Blackley, Middlesbrough West, Norfolk South West, Oldham East, Plymouth Sutton, Reading North, Rochdale, Rutherglen, Wycombe, Yarmouth
Nationalist Nationalist 1 Fermanagh and South Tyrone
Independent Republican Independent Republican 1 Mid Ulster
Liberal Labour 2 Anglesey, Meirioneth
Liberal (HOLD) 5 Cardiganshire, Carmarthen, Huddersfield West, Montgomery, Orkney and Shetland
Conservative 2 Eye, Roxburgh and Selkirk
Liberal National Liberal National (HOLD) 16 Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Bedfordshire South, Bradford North, Denbigh, Dumfriesshire, Fife East, Harwich, Holland with Boston, Huntingdonshire, Luton, Norfolk Central, Renfrewshire West, Ross and Cromarty, St Ives, Torrington
Conservative Liberal National 1 Newcastle upon Tyne North
Conservative (HOLD) many
Speaker 1 Hexham
Ulster Unionist Irish Labour 1 Belfast West
UUP 9 North Antrim, South Antrim, Armagh, Belfast East, Belfast North, Belfast South, Down North, Down South, Londonderry

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ All parties shown. Conservative result includes the Ulster Unionists.
  2. ↑ No seats changed hands during the 1950–51 Parliament.

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ Judd 2012, p. 238: Judd writes that Attlee confirmed the king's anxiety in his own autobiography.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Kynaston 2009, p. 32.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Sources

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External links

Manifestos


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], 1951 Conservative Party manifesto

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