1950 United Kingdom general election

United Kingdom general election, 1950

23 February 1950
All 625 seats in the House of Commons 313 seats needed for a majority
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, 39.1% 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%
File:UK Election 1950 Map.png Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. (Map does not show results in Northern Ireland)
Prime Minister before election Clement Attlee Labour Subsequent 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 a Labour government. The election was held on Thursday 23 February 1950. Despite polling over 700,000 votes more than the Conservatives, and receiving more votes than they had during the 1945 general election, Labour obtained a slim majority of just five seats — a stark contrast to 1945, when they had achieved a comfortable 146-seat majority. There was a national swing towards the Conservatives, whose performance in terms of popular vote was dramatically better than in 1945, which helps to explain Labour's slim majority. Labour called another general election in 1951.

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. Turnout increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a UK general election under universal suffrage. It was also the first general election to be covered on television, although the footage was not recorded.

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. 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. 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, a total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record number until 2015, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits at the general election held in that year.

Results

Prominent personalities entering Parliament in this election included Edward Heath, Enoch Powell, Reginald Maudling, Iain Macleod and Tony Benn.

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	None	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)	None	2	0	0	0	0		0.0	448

Total votes cast: 28,771,124. Turnout 83.9%. All parties shown

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

References

• F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987
• Nicholas, H. (1951). The British general election of 1950. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-77865-0.

Manifestos

• This is the Road: The Conservative and Unionist Party's Policy- 1950 Conservative 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.

External links

• United Kingdom election results - summary results 1885-1979