1906 United Kingdom general election

none January 2020 May 2014 1906 United Kingdom general election United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland parliamentary no 1900 United Kingdom general election 1900 List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1900 January 1910 United Kingdom general election Jan 1910 All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 List of MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, 1906 1906 1 12 1906 2 8 yes 5,246,67283.2% (8.1 pp) Sir-Henry-Campbell-Bannerman.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Henry Campbell-Bannerman December 1898 Liberal Party (UK) Stirling Burghs 183 seats, 45.1% 397 214 2,565,644 48.9% 3.8 pp Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour (1902).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Arthur Balfour 11 June 1902 Conservative and Liberal Unionist Manchester East (defeated) 402 seats, 50.2% 156 246 2,278,076 43.4% 6.8 pp Keir Hardie by George Charles Beresford (1905).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Keir Hardie 28 February 1900 Labour Representation Committee (1900) Merthyr Tydfil 2 seats, 1.3% 29 27 254,202 4.8% 3.5 pp John Redmond, circa 1909.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 John Redmond 6 February 1900 Irish Parliamentary Party Waterford City 77 seats, 1.8% 82 5 33,231 0.6% 1.2 pp Prime Minister Prime Minister afterelection Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman Liberal Party (UK) Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman Liberal Party (UK) 7,264,6086,347,660 in contested seats United Kingdom general election 1906.svg 330px Colours denote the winning party File:House of Commons - United Kingdom general election, 1906.svg 360px Composition of the House of Commons after the election The 1906 United Kingdom general election was held from 12 January to 8 February 1906. The Liberals under Henry Campbell-Bannerman won a landslide victory against a bewildered Conservative Party, in which its leader, Arthur Balfour, lost his seat; the party won the lowest number of seats it ever had in its history, a record unsurpassed until 2024. This particular landslide is now ranked alongside the 1924, 1931, 1945, 1983, 1997, 2001, and 2024 general elections as one of the largest landslide election victories.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/4694864.stm BBC NEWS – Programmes – BBC Parliament – 1906: The Liberal landslide 9 February 2006UK general election results live: Rishi Sunak to resign as Conservative Party leader after crushing election defeat https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cn09xn9je7lt 2024-07-05 BBC News en-GB The Labour Representation Committee was far more successful than at the 1900 general election and after the election would be renamed the Labour Party with 29 MPs and Keir Hardie as leader. The Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond, achieved its seats with a relatively low number of votes, as 73 candidates stood unopposed. This election was a landslide defeat for the Conservative Party and their Liberal Unionist allies, with the primary reason given by historians being the party's weakness after its split over the issue of free trade (Joseph Chamberlain had resigned from government in September 1903 in order to campaign for Tariff Reform, which would allow "preferential tariffs"). Many working-class people at the time saw this as a threat to the price of food, hence the debate was nicknamed "Big Loaf, Little Loaf". The Liberals' landslide victory of 124 seats over all other parties led to the passing of social legislation known as the Liberal reforms. This was the last general election in which the Liberals won an absolute majority in the House of Commons, the last general election in which neither Labour nor the Conservatives won the popular vote, and the only election held between 1886 and 1945 in which the Conservatives did not win the popular vote. It was also the last peacetime election held more than five years after the previous one prior to passage of the Parliament Act 1911, which limited the duration of Parliaments in peacetime to five years. In this election the Conservatives were reduced to their lowest seat count in the party's history, a record not broken until 2024, 118 years later. none 1895 1900 1906 January 1910 December 1910 Overview A coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Unionist parties had governed the United Kingdom since the 1895 general election. Arthur Balfour had served as Prime Minister from 1902 until 5 December 1905, when he chose to resign over growing unpopularity. Instead of calling a general election, Balfour had hoped that under a Liberal government, splits would re-emerge; which would therefore help the Conservative Party achieve victory at the next general election.Oxford DNB theme: The general election of 1906 http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95348.html https://web.archive.org/web/20170530184405/http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95348.html 30 May 2017 dead The incoming Liberal government chose to capitalise on the Conservative government's unpopularity and called an immediate general election one month later on 12 January 1906, which resulted in a crushing defeat for the Conservatives.November 2020 Conservative unpopularity thumb|upright|Example of a Liberal poster during the election The Unionist government had become deeply divided over the issue of free trade, which soon became an electoral liability. This culminated in Joseph Chamberlain's resignation from the government in May 1903 to campaign for tariff reform in order to protect British industry from foreign competition. This division was in contrast to the Liberal Party's belief in free trade, which it argued would help keep costs of living down. The issue of free trade became the feature of the Liberal campaign, under the slogan 'big loaf' under a Liberal government, 'little loaf' under a Conservative government. It also commissioned a variety of posters warning the electorate over rises in food prices under protectionist policies, including one which mentioned that "Balfour and Chamberlain are linked together against free trade ... Don't be deceived by Tory tricks". https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2005/apr/04/electionspast.past2 Hit for six Ros Taylor 4 April 2005 The Guardian London The Boer War had also contributed to the unpopularity of the Conservative and Unionist government. The war had lasted over two and half years, much longer than had originally been expected, while details were revealed of the existence of concentration camps where over 20,000 men, women and children were reported to have died because of poor sanitation.November 2020 The war had also unearthed the poor social state of the country in the early 1900s. This was after more than 40% of military recruits for the Boer War were declared unfit for military service; in Manchester, 8,000 of the 11,000 men who had been recruited had to be turned away for being in poor physical condition. This was after the 1902 Rowntree study of poverty in York showed that almost one-third of the population lived below the 'poverty line', which helped to increase the calls for social reforms, something which had been neglected by the Conservative and Unionist government.http://www.cercles.com/n21/thane.pdf thane 22 April 2018 The Conservative and Unionist Prime Minister, Arthur Balfour, had been blamed over the issue of 'Chinese Slavery', i.e. the use of Chinese-indentured labour in South Africa (see Chinese South Africans). This became controversial among the Conservative Party's middle-class supporters, who saw it as unethical. The working-class also objected to the practice, as White emigration to South Africa could have created jobs for the unemployed in Britain.http://commons.lib.jmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=mhr British Liberty Stained Spencer Scott 2010 commons.lib.jmu.edu Nonconformists were angered when Conservatives pushed through the Education Act 1902, which integrated voluntary schools into the state system and provided for their support from the local rate. The local school boards were abolished and replaced by local education authorities based on county or county borough councils. Worst of all, the Anglican schools, which were on the edge of bankruptcy would thus receive funding from local rates that everyone had to pay.Lowe Norman 2017 Mastering Modern British History http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-60388-3 10.1057/978-1-137-60388-3 subscription One tactic was to refuse to pay local taxes.N. R. Gullifer Opposition to the 1902 Education Act Oxford Review of Education 1982 8 83–98 1 1050168 10.1080/0305498820080106 The school system played a major role in the Liberal victory in 1906, as Dissenter (nonconformist) Conservatives punished their old party and voted Liberal. However, the Liberals were conscious of the call to fair treatment their victory had in the counties and neither repealed or modified the 1902 law.Élie Halévy The Rule of Democracy (1905–1914) 1956 64–90 Another issue which lost the Conservatives nonconformist votes was the Licensing Act 1904. Although the legislation aimed to reduce the number of public houses, it proposed to compensate brewers for the cancellation of their licence, through a fund the brewers themselves would have to pay into leading many who adhered to temperance to denounce it as a "brewers' bill", and brewers generally being dissatisfied.Wars and Welfare: Britain in Transition 1906–1957 Thomas Jo Willis Michael Oxford University Press 2016 978-0-19-8354-598 Oxford 2 Results center|300px UK General Election 1906 Liberal Party (UK) Henry Campbell-Bannerman 528 397 223 9 +214 2,565,644 48.9 59.3 +3.9 yes 6,463 Conservative and Liberal Unionist Arthur Balfour 557 156 5 251 −246 2,278,076 43.4 23.3 −6.8 14,603 Labour Representation Committee (1900) Keir Hardie 50 29 28 1 +27 254,202 4.8 4.3 +3.6 8,766 Irish Parliamentary Party John Redmond 84 82 6 1 +5 33,231 0.6 12.2 −1.2 405 Russellite Unionist Thomas Russell 9 2 2 0 +2 26,183 0.5 0.3 13,092 Independent Labour Party N/A 7 1 1 0 +1 18,886 0.4 0.2 18,886 Social Democratic Federation H. M. Hyndman 8 0 0 0 0 18,446 0.4 N/A Independent Conservative N/A 9 1 1 0 +1 15,972 0.3 0.2 15,972 Scottish Workers' Representation Committee George Carson 5 0 0 0 0 14,877 0.3 +0.2 N/A Free Trader John Eldon Gorst 5 0 0 0 0 8,974 0.2 N/A Independent Liberal-Labour N/A 1 1 1 0 +1 4,841 0.1 0.2 4,841 Independent (politician) N/A 3 0 0 0 0 3,806 0.1 N/A Independent Nationalist N/A 3 1 0 0 0 1,800 0.0 0.2 1,800 Independent Liberal N/A 3 0 0 1 −1 1,581 0.0 N/A Independent Liberal Unionist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 153 0.0 N/A |} Total votes cast: 5,246,672.All parties shown.Electorate: 7,264,608 (6,347,660 in contested seats)Turnout: 83.2% https://web.archive.org/web/20120130011015/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/geresults.html 30 January 2012 http://www.election.demon.co.uk/geresults.html General Election Results 1885–1979 16 June 2022 dead Voting summary Popular vote #ddd 600px 350px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 48.90 Conservative and Liberal Unionist Conservative and Liberal Unionist 43.42 Labour Repr. Cmte. Labour Representation Committee (1900) 4.85 Irish Parliamentary Irish Parliamentary Party 0.63 Others #A9A9A9 2.20 Seats summary Parliamentary seats #ddd 600px 350px Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 59.25 Conservative and Liberal Unionist Conservative and Liberal Unionist 23.28 Irish Parliamentary Irish Parliamentary Party 12.24 Labour Repr. Cmte. Labour Representation Committee (1900) 4.33 Others #A9A9A9 0.90 Analysis According to historian Lawrence Goldman: The election of 1906 led eventually to old-age pensions, the Trade Boards Act of 1909 which applied minimum wages to the 'sweated trades', the redistributive 1909 'people's budget', the introduction of labour exchanges, the National Insurance Act of 1911, and the Parliament Act of that year which removed the House of Lords' veto on legislation from the Commons ... Though the eventual achievements of the parliament elected in 1906 were remarkable, the election was something of a fluke; the scale of the Liberal victory was in direct proportion to the scale of preceding Tory blunders but it exaggerated the degree of dependable Liberal support in the country. The subsequent elections in January and December 1910, during the crisis over the people's budget, saw the number of Liberal MPs reduced to 275 and 272 respectively, while Conservative support recovered and the party, together with their Liberal Unionist allies, took 273 and then 272 seats.Lawrence Goldman Oxford DNB theme: The general election of 1906 http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95348.html Notable results The landslide Liberal victory led to many Conservative and Unionist MPs losing what had previously been regarded as safe seats. This resulted in prominent Conservative ministers being unseated including former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. Only three of the Conservative cabinet which had served until December 1905 (one month before the election) held onto their seats, the outgoing: Home Secretary Aretas Akers-Douglas, Chancellor Austen Chamberlain (Liberal Unionist), Secretary of State for War H.O. Arnold-Forster who changed to that allied party before the election.November 2020 Manchester East Arthur Balfour, who entered the general election as the Conservative Party leader and had until the month before been Prime Minister, unexpectedly lost his seat in the Manchester East constituency, a seat which he had represented since 1885. The result in Manchester East saw a large 22.4% swing to the Liberal candidate Thomas Gardner Horridge, much larger than the national 5.4% swing to the Liberals.November 2020 The Liberal candidate in Manchester East had been helped by a pact with the local Labour Party. Horridge said of his victory that "East Manchester is essentially a Labour constituency and the great Labour party has supported my candidacy very thoroughly and very loyally". He also said that "[Manchester East constituents] have returned me, I take it, first to uphold free trade, next to deal with Chinese labour, and after that to support legislation on the lines laid down in the programme of the Labour party, with which I am heartily in accord". Balfour's unseating became symbolic of the Conservative Party's landslide defeat. The result has since been called one of the biggest upsets in British political history and remains a rare instance of a former Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition losing their seat in a general election.http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/3783/top-tenshock-election-results.thtml Top Ten...Shock election results | Total Politics 26 December 2015 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20151227091040/http://www.totalpolitics.com/print/3783/top-tenshock-election-results.thtml 27 December 2015 Gladstone–MacDonald pact Gladstone–MacDonald pact In 1903, the Liberal Herbert Gladstone and Ramsay MacDonald of the Labour Representation Committee negotiated an informal agreement to ensure the anti-Conservative vote was not split between their two parties. The Gladstone–MacDonald pact meant that, in 31 of the 50 seats where LRC candidates stood, the Liberal Party did not put up a candidate. This proved helpful to both parties, as 24 of LRC 29 elected MPs came from constituencies where the Liberal Party agreed not to contest, while the pact allowed the Liberals to concentrate resources on Conservative/Liberal marginal constituencies.November 2020 See also List of MPs elected in the 1906 United Kingdom general election Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918 Education Act 1902 1906 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1906 United Kingdom general election in Ireland 1906 United Kingdom general election in Wales References Further reading Frank Bealey Bealey Frank Negotiations Between the Liberal Party and the Labour Representation Committee Before the General Election of 1906 Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 29 1956 265+ Betts, Oliver. (2016)"'The People's Bread': A Social History of Joseph Chamberlain and the Tariff Reform Campaign." in Joseph Chamberlain: International Statesman, National Leader, Local Icon ed by I. Cawood and C. Upton. (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016) pp. 130–150. Blewett Neal Neal Blewett The Peers, the Parties and the People: The British General Elections of 1910 1972 Toronto and Buffalo University of Toronto Press https://archive.org/details/peerspartiespeop0000blew/page/n5/mode/2up registration 0-8020-1838-6 F. W. S. Craig F. W. S. Craig British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987 1989 Dartmouth Gower 0900178302 Dutton David Unionist Politics and the aftermath of the General Election of 1906: A Reassessment Historical Journal 22 861–876 4 1979 10.1017/S0018246X00017155 153444456 Fraser Peter Unionism and Tariff Reform: The Crisis of 1906 Historical Journal 5 2 1962 149–166 10.1017/S0018246X00000170 155026903 Goldman Lawrence Lawrence Goldman Oxford DNB theme: The general election of 1906 http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95348.html (Brief scholarly history) Halévy, Élie (1956), The Rule of Democracy (1905–1914), pp. 64–90. online Irwin Douglas A. The political economy of free trade: voting in the British general election of 1906 Journal of Law and Economics 37 1994 75–108 http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/docs/british-jle.pdf 10.1086/467307 153373790 19 January 2016 10 May 2017 https://web.archive.org/web/20170510133025/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dirwin/docs/british-jle.pdf dead Machin, G. I. T. (1982) "The Last Victorian Anti-Ritualist Campaign, 1895–1906." Victorian Studies 25.3 (1982): 277–302. online Purdue, A. W. (1973) "George Lansbury and the Middlesbrough election of 1906." International Review of Social History 18.3 (1973): 333–352. Russell A. K. Liberal Landslide: The General Election of 1906 1973 David and Charles, (The standard scholarly study) Sykes Alan Tariff Reform in British Politics: 1903–1913 Oxford University Press 1979 Watson, Robert Spence. (1907) The National Liberal Federation: From Its Commencement to the General Election of 1906. (T. Fisher Unwin, 1907) online. External links Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 https://web.archive.org/web/20120130011015/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/geresults.html 30 January 2012 Manifestos 1906 Conservative manifesto 1906 Labour manifesto 1906 Liberal manifesto General election 1906 Category:January 1906 in the United Kingdom Category:February 1906 in the United Kingdom Category:1906 elections in Ireland Category:Henry Campbell-Bannerman Category:Arthur Balfour