1874 United Kingdom general election

none July 2020 May 2014 1874 United Kingdom general election United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland parliamentary no 1868 United Kingdom general election 1868 List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1868 1880 United Kingdom general election 1880 2,466,037 All 652 seats in the House of Commons 327 1874 1 31 1874 2 17 yes List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1874 150x150px Benjamin Disraeli 27 February 1868 Conservative Party (UK) Buckinghamshire 271 seats, 38.7% 350 79 1,091,708 44.3% 5.6 pp 150x150px William Ewart Gladstone 3 December 1868 Liberal Party (UK) Greenwich 387 seats, 61.2% 242speaker 145 1,281,159 52.0% 9.2 pp 150x150px Isaac Butt November 1873 Home Rule League Limerick City Did not contest 60 60 90,234 3.7% New party United Kingdom general election 1874.svg 380px Colours denote the winning party Prime Minister Prime Minister after election William Gladstone Liberal Party (UK) Benjamin Disraeli Conservative Party (UK) File:1874 UK GE Composition diagram.svg Composition of the House of Commons after the election The 1874 United Kingdom general election was held between 31 January and 17 February 1874. Although the Liberals won the majority of the votes, Benjamin Disraeli's Conservative Party managed to win a majority, largely caused by the number of uncontested seats held by the Conservatives. Although there had been minority Conservative governments in the intervening years, this was the first outright Conservative election victory since Robert Peel's victory in 1841 over thirty years earlier.William Henry Maehl, "Gladstone, the Liberals, and the Election of 1874", Historical Research (1963), 36#93: 53–69. The election saw the Irish of the Home Rule League become a significant third party in Parliament, with 60 of 101 of the seats for Ireland. This was the first UK election to use a secret ballot following the 1872 Secret Ballot Act. The Irish Nationalist gains are often attributed to the effects of the Secret Ballot Act,Kinzer Bruce L. The Ballot Question in Nineteenth-Century English Politics 1982 Garland New York u.a 0824051572 247 https://archive.org/details/ballotquestionin0000kinz/page/247/mode/2up? 21 September 2025 as tenants faced less of a threat of eviction if they voted against the wishes of their landlords.O'Day Alan Reactions to Irish Nationalism 1987 Bloomsbury Publishing 0826421172 11 https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Reactions_to_Irish_Nationalism_1865_1914/EuBNO4XIu9oC?hl=en&gbpv=0 22 September 2025 However, the Home Rule League had already won 8 by-elections before the passage of the act, diminishing its often emphasised importance. Also in this election, the first two working-class MPs were elected: Alexander MacDonald and Thomas Burt, both members of the Miners' Union, were elected as Liberal-Labour (Lib–Lab) MPs in Stafford and Morpeth, respectively.Whitfield Bob The Extension of the Franchise, 1832-1931 2001 Heinemann 9780435327170 240 https://books.google.com/books?id=a-Rd0iLobaEC&pg=PA240 The 1867 Reform Act eroded the legislative power of the rural gentry. The 1874 election, especially in Ireland, saw great landowners losing their county seats to tenant farmers.David F. Krein, "The Great Landowners in the House of Commons, 1833–85." Parliamentary History 32.3 (2013): 460-476. This is the only time, since the introduction of the secret ballot, that a UK party has been defeated despite receiving an absolute majority of the popular vote. This was primarily because over 100 Conservative candidates were elected unopposed. This meant no votes were cast in those 100 places where the Conservative candidates were anticipated to be popular; in the seats where Liberal candidates did stand, they polled a high proportion of the vote on average. The election saw 652 MPs elected, six fewer than at the previous election. Following allegations of corruption, the Conservative-held constituencies of Beverley and Sligo, and the Liberal-held constituencies of Bridgwater and Cashel, had been abolished. none 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 Results center|300px UK General Election 1874 Liberal Party (UK) 489 242 −139 1,281,159 51.95 37.12 −9.5 5,294 Conservative Party (UK) 507 350 +79 1,091,708 44.27 53.68 +5.9 yes 3,119 Home Rule League 80 60 0 0 +60 90,234 3.66 9.20 N/A 1,504 Others 4 0 0 0 0 2,936 0.12 0 0.0 N/A |} Total votes cast: 2,466,037."Others" include the Catholic Union. Voting summary Popular vote #ddd 600px 380px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 51.95 Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 44.27 Home Rule Home Rule League 3.66 Others #777777 0.12 Seats summary Parliamentary seats #ddd 600px 380px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 37.12 Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 53.68 Home Rule Home Rule League 9.2 Regional results Great Britain Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Conservative Party (UK) 319 85 1,000,006 44.6 Liberal Party (UK) 230speaker The seat and vote count figures for the Liberals given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons 93 1,241,381 55.4 Liberal-Labour (UK) 2 2 Other 0 2 0.0 Total 551 4 2,241,389 100 England Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Conservative Party (UK) 280 69 905,239 46.2 Liberal Party (UK) 171 75 1,035,268 53.8 Liberal-Labour (UK) 2 2 Other 0 2 0.0 Total 451 4 1,940,509 100 Scotland Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 40 11 148,345 68.4 Conservative Party (UK) 18 11 63,193 31.6 Total 58 211,538 100 Wales Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Liberal Party (UK) 19 4 57,768 60.9 Conservative Party (UK) 14 4 31,574 39.1 Total 33 89,342 100 Ireland United Kingdom general election, 1874 (Ireland) Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Home Rule League 60 60 90,234 39.6 Irish Conservative Party 31 6 91,702 40.8 −1.1% Liberal Party (UK) 10 56 39,778 18.4 −39.5% Other 0 2,934 1.2 Total 101 2 224,648 100 Universities Party Seats Seats change Votes % % change Conservative Party (UK) 7 1 Liberal Party (UK) 2 1 Total 9 100 All University candidates were elected unopposed. See also List of MPs elected in the 1874 United Kingdom general election 1874 United Kingdom general election in Ireland Notes References Further reading F. W. S. Craig F. W. S. Craig British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987 1989 Dartmouth Gower 0900178302 Hurst Michael Liberal versus Liberal: The General Election of 1874 in Bradford and Sheffield Historical Journal 15 669–713 4 1972 10.1017/s0018246x00003502 145108784 McIntyre, William David. "Disraeli's election blunder: The straits of Malacca issue in the 1874 election." Culture, Theory and Critique 5.1 (1961): 76–105. Maehl William Henry Gladstone, the Liberals, and the Election of 1874 Historical Research 36 53–69 93 1963 10.1111/j.1468-2281.1963.tb00622.x British Electoral Facts 1832–1999 Colin Rallings Colin Rallings Michael Thrasher Michael Thrasher Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000 Martin Roberts Britain: 1846–1964: The Challenge of Change Oxford University Press 2001 Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England" Cultural & Social History (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890. Category:1874 elections in the United Kingdom General election 1874 Category:January 1874 in the United Kingdom Category:February 1874 in the United Kingdom Category:Benjamin Disraeli Category:William Ewart Gladstone