1929 United Kingdom general election

A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 30 May 1929, after the previous Parliament was dissolved on 10 May. It resulted in a hung parliament: the Conservative Party, led by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, won the most votes, but Ramsay MacDonald's Labour Party won the most seats in the House of Commons. This marked the first election where Labour emerged as the largest party, though they failed to win a majority. The Liberal Party, led again by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George, regained some of the ground lost in 1924 and held the balance of power. The election was often referred to as the "Flapper Election", because it was the first in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote (owing to the Representation of the People Act 1928). Women over 30, with some property qualifications, had been able to vote since the 1918 general election, but the 1929 vote was the first general election with universal suffrage for adults over 21, which was then the age of majority. The election was fought against a background of rising unemployment, with the memory of the 1926 general strike still fresh in voters' minds. By 1929, the Cabinet was being described by many as "old and exhausted". The Liberals campaigned on a comprehensive programme of public works under the title "We Can Conquer Unemployment". There was anticipation of a potential revival of the Liberal Party after the reunification of Independent Liberals and National Liberals now under Lloyd George's leadership since 1926 and following some victories in a series of recent by-elections after 1926. The incumbent Conservatives campaigned on the theme of "Safety First", with Labour campaigning on the theme of "Labour & the Nation". This was the first general election to be contested by the newly formed Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru. It stood as the last time when a third party polled more than one-fifth of the popular vote until 1983. The Liberals performed more successfully than at the previous general election in 1924, but could not regain their pre-World War I status as a party of government. == Results == === Summary of seats returned === === Full Results === === Votes summary === === Seats summary === === Constituency results === == Transfers of seats == All comparisons are with the 1924 election. In some cases, the change is due to the MP's having defected to the gaining party, and then retaining the seat in 1929. Such circumstances are marked with a *. In other circumstances, the change is due to the seat's having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1929. Such circumstances are marked with a †. == See also == List of MPs elected in the 1929 United Kingdom general election 1929 United Kingdom general election in England 1929 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1929 United Kingdom general election in Wales 1929 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland Constituency election results in the 1929 United Kingdom general election == References == == Note list == === Sources === == Further reading == Howell, David (2002), MacDonald's Party: Labour Identities and Crisis, 1922–1939, Oxford Redvaldsen, David (2010), "'Today is the Dawn': The Labour Party and the 1929 General Election", Parliamentary History, 29 (3): 395–415, doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2010.00213.x Williamson, Philip (1982), "'Safety First': Baldwin, the Conservative Party and the 1929 General Election" (PDF), Historical Journal, 25 (2): 385–409, doi:10.1017/S0018246X00011614, S2CID 159673425 == External links == United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 Archived 30 January 2012 at the Wayback Machine === Manifestos === 1929 Conservative manifesto 1929 Labour manifesto at the Wayback Machine (archived 2004-02-12) 1929 Liberal manifesto