1924 United Kingdom general election

none August 2026 June 2026 November 2011 1924 United Kingdom general election United Kingdom parliamentary no 1923 United Kingdom general election 1923 List of MPs elected in the 1923 United Kingdom general election 1929 United Kingdom general election 1929 List of MPs elected in the 1924 United Kingdom general election All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 Members elected 29 October 1924 21,730,988 16,640,27977.0% (5.9 pp) Stanley Baldwin (1923).jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Stanley Baldwin 23 May 1923 Conservative Party (UK) Bewdley 258 seats, 38.0% 412 154 7,854,523 46.8% 8.8 pp Ramsay MacDonald ggbain 35734.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 Ramsay MacDonald 21 November 1922 Labour Party (UK) Aberavon 191 seats, 30.7% 151 40 5,489,087 33.3% 2.6 pp Beresford-HH_Asquith_portrait_1923.jpg 120 120 160 0 0 H. H. Asquith 30 April 1908 Liberal Party (UK) Paisley (lost seat) 158 seats, 29.7% 40speaker Figure includes Speaker of the House of Commons John Henry Whitley in Halifax. 118 2,928,737 17.8% 11.9 pp 1924_UK_general_election_map.svg 380px Colours denote the winning party—as shown in ResultsNorthern Ireland and university constituencies not shown. Prime Minister Prime Minister after election Ramsay MacDonald Labour Party (UK) Stanley Baldwin Conservative Party (UK) File:1924 UK GE composition diagram.svg Diagram showing the composition of the House of Commons following the election A general election was held in the United Kingdom on Wednesday 29 October 1924, as a result of the defeat of the Labour minority government, led by Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, in the House of Commons on a motion of no confidence.Graper Elmer D. 1925 The British Election https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055400020955/type/journal_article American Political Science Review en 19 1 84–96 10.2307/2938896 2938896 145751193 0003-0554 subscription It was the third general election to be held in less than two years. Parliament was dissolved on 9 October.https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/RP97-40/RP97-40.pdf Parliamentary Election Timetables 3rd House of Commons Library 25 March 1997 3 July 2022 The Conservatives, led by Stanley Baldwin, performed better, in electoral terms, than in the 1923 general election and obtained a large parliamentary majority of 209. Labour, led by MacDonald, lost 40 seats. The election also saw the Liberal Party, led by H. H. Asquith, lose 118 of their 158 seats, which helped polarise British politics between the Labour and Conservative parties. The Conservative landslide victory and the Labour defeat in this general election have been, in part, attributed to the Zinoviev letter, a forged document that was published as if it were genuine and sensationalised in the Daily Mail four days before the election. The Labour vote increased by around one million in comparison to the 1923 general election, but this was largely due to the party putting up 87 more candidates than it had in the previous election. The Conservatives had called the previous 1923 election early to get a mandate for moving to a protectionist trade policy of imperial preference, but had lost their majority. In 1924, they reverted to free trade and regained power. They would propose protectionism at the next general election in 1929, again losing. Along with 1964 and 1992, this was the first of three elections in the 20th century to take place in the same year as a United States presidential election. This is also the closest instance in which both elections overlapped with the latter's election taking place a week later. Overview After the previous general election, the Labour Party had finished as the second-largest party, but formed their first-ever government with the support of the Liberal Party, after the ruling Conservative Party's shock loss of their majority made it untenable for Baldwin to continue as Prime Minister. However, relations between Labour and the Liberals proved stormy, eventually resulting in Liberal M.P. Sir John Simon calling a motion of no confidence in MacDonald's government, which was carried by a large majority. Asquith had gambled that neither Baldwin nor MacDonald would want to put the country through a third general election in two years, and that one of them would be forced to enter into a formal coalition with the Liberals. However, the gambit backfired when MacDonald instead called an election, knowing full well that a Conservative landslide was the only likely outcome, but himself gambling that it would be primarily at the expense of the Liberals. MacDonald's judgement proved correct, as the Liberals, who were still mostly dependent on former Prime Minister David Lloyd George for funds, ended up financially crippled from the very start of the campaign, while Labour were actually able to expand the scope of their own campaign thanks to increasing support from the workers' unions. It is speculated that the combination of Labour forming its first government in January 1924 and the Zinoviev letter helped to stir up anti-socialist fears in Britain among many traditional anti-socialist Liberal voters, who then switched their support to the Conservative Party. This partly helps to explain the poor performance of the Liberal Party in the general election. The party also had financial difficulties which allowed it to contest only 339 seats, a lack of distinctive policies after the Conservative Party dropped their support for protected trade, and poor leadership under Asquith, who lost his own seat for the second time in six years. It would be the final election for Asquith, who was subsequently forced to lead the party from the House of Lords after being elevated to the Earldom of Oxford and Asquith the following year, with Lloyd George as Liberal chairman in the House of Commons. Declining health saw Asquith replaced as party leader by Lloyd George in 1926. The fourth party in terms of number of candidates, number of seats and number of votes were not a party but a group of former National Liberals standing under the Constitutionalist label, led by Winston Churchill. They favoured Conservative/Liberal co-operation and had intended to formally organize as a party, but the election was called before they had the opportunity to actually do so. Three of the seven Constitutionalists elected, including Churchill, had been opposed by official Liberal candidates, and sat as Conservatives after the election. The other four sat as Liberals. The refounded Sinn Féin ran Westminster candidates for the first time since March 1919; none came close to winning, with six of the eight losing their deposits. Its next Westminster election was in 1950. none 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 The election was the first in the United Kingdom to feature party political broadcasts, with the parties making short appeals to voters via BBC Radio.Evans Jeff The Political Compendium 2022 Zymurgy Publishing Newcastle upon Tyne 978-1-903506-49-3 55 Results Summary of seats returned + centre|420px PartyBritish Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006 Leader MPs Aggregate votes Of total Of totalAdjusted for multi-member constituencies. Conservative and Unionist Party Stanley Baldwin 412 412 615 1 yes Conservative Party (UK) 7,854,523 46.8% 46.8 Conservative Party (UK) Conservative PartyResults for England and Wales. Stanley Baldwin 361 361 615 1 yes Conservative Party (UK) 6,703,977 40.9% 40.9 Conservative Party (UK) Unionist Party Victor Hope 38 38 615 1 yes Unionist Party (Scotland) 699,268 4.2% 4.2 Unionist Party (Scotland) Ulster Unionist Party James Craig 13 13 615 1 yes Ulster Unionist Party 451,278 1.7% 1.7 Ulster Unionist Party Labour Party Ramsay MacDonald 151 151 615 1 yes Labour Party (UK) 5,489,087 33.3% 33.3 Labour Party (UK) Labour Party Ramsay MacDonald 146 146 615 1 yes Labour Party (UK) 5,360,250 32.5% 32.5 Labour Party (UK) Co-operative Party 5 5 615 1 yes Co-operative Party 128,837 0.8% 0.8 Co-operative Party Liberal Party H. H. Asquith 40speaker 40 615 1 yes Liberal Party (UK) 2,928,737 17.8% 17.8 Liberal Party (UK) Constitutionalist 7 7 615 1 yes Constitutionalist (UK) 185,075 1.2% 1.2 Constitutionalist (UK) Independent 2 2 615 1 yes Independent (politician) 25,206 0.2% 0.2 Independent (politician) Communist Albert Inkpin 1 1 615 1 yes Communist Party of Great Britain 55,346 0.3% 0.3 Communist Party of Great Britain Scottish Prohibition Party Edwin Scrymgeour 1 1 615 1 yes Scottish Prohibition Party 29,193 0.1% 0.1 Scottish Prohibition Party Irish Nationalist T. P. O'Connor 1 1 615 1 yes Nationalist Party (Ireland) 0 0.0% 0.0 Nationalist Party (Ireland) Full Results center|500x500px +Results of the October 1924 general election to the House of Commons of the United KingdomPartyCraig F. W. S. British Parliamentary Election Results 1918–49 https://books.google.com/books?id=MMCuCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 1st 1977 The Macmillan Press Ltd London and Basingstoke 978-1-349-81467-1https://api.parliament.uk/uk-general-elections/general-elections/24 UK General Elections Results 1832-2019 12 August 2026British Electoral Facts Colin Rallings Micheal Thrasher Total Politics 978-1-907278-03-7 2006LeaderCandidatesMPsAggregate votes Total Gains Losses Net Of total (%) Total Of total (%)Adjusted for multi-member constituencies. Change (%)   Conservative Figure includes the Unionist Party and the Ulster Unionist Party under their nation affiliations with the Conservative Party. Stanley Baldwin 534 412 163 9 154 67.0 7,854,523 46.8 8.8   Labour (Total) RamsayMacDonald 514 151 23 63 40 24.6 5,489,087 33.3 2.6 Labour Party (UK) RamsayMacDonald 504 138 22 61 39 22.4 5,360,250 32.5 2.6 Co-operative Party 10 5 1 2 1 0.7 128,837 0.8   Liberal H. H. Asquith 339 40speaker 10 128 118 6.5 2,928,737 17.8 11.9   Constitutionalist 12 7 7 0 7 1.1 185,075 1.2 1.1   Communist AlbertInkpin 8 1 1Shapurji Saklatvala in Battersea North. 0 1 — 55,346 0.3 0.1   Sinn Féin Éamonde Valera 8 0 colspan=3 Did not stand in 1923 — 46,457 0.2   Independent 7 2Ernest Graham-Little in London University and Austin Hopkinson in Mossley. 1Ernest Graham-Little in London University. 1Oswald Mosley in Harrow, though he unsuccessfully stood as a Labour candidate in Birmingham Ladywood. 0.3 25,206 0.2 0.1   Scottish Prohibition EdwinScrymgeour 1 1Edwin Scrymgeour in Dundee. 0 0 0.2 25,206 0.1   NI Labour SamKyle 1Candidate Harry Midgley stood in Belfast West. 0 colspan=3 New — 21,122 0.1 New   IndependentLiberal 1Candidate J. R. M. Butler stood in Cambridge University. 0 0 1 Rhys Hopkin Morris in Ceredigion relected in seat, but as official Liberal Party candidates. 1 — 3,241 0.0 0.1   DemocraticLabour 1Candidate Mary Richardson stood in Acton. 0 colspan=3 New — 1,775 0.0 New   IndependentUnionist 1Candidate William Galt stood in Londonderry. 0 0 0 — 517 0.0 0.1   IrishNationalist T. P.O'Connor 1 1T. P. O'Connor in Liverpool Scotland. 0 0 0.2 0 0.0 0.1   Other non-contested 0 0 colspan=2 2 2 Nationalist Party MPs. — 0 0.0 Total 1,428 615 0 100.0 16,640,279 100.0 0.0 Registered voters, and turnout21,730,988British Electoral Facts 1885-1975 F.W.S. Craig Macmillan Press 3 76 0333197348 1976Including the electorate in uncontested constituencies. 77.0https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7529/CBP-7529.pdf UK Election Statistics: 1918-2023, A Century of Elections Cracknell Richard Uberoi Elise Burton Matthew 9 August 2023 House of Commons Library 29 8 August 2026Adjusted for multi-member constituencies. 5.9 Votes summary Popular vote #ddd 600px 500px Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 46.79 Labour Labour Party (UK) 30.68 Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 17.78 Others #a9a9a9 4.75 Seats summary Parliamentary seats #ddd 600px 500px Conservative Conservative Party (UK) 66.99 Labour Labour Party (UK) 24.55 Liberal Liberal Party (UK) 6.50 Others #a9a9a9 1.96 Transfers of seats All comparisons are with the 1923 election. In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *. In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1924. Such circumstances are marked with a †. ToFromNo.Seats Communist Party (UK)Liberal Party (UK)1Battersea NorthLabour Party (UK)16Stirling and Falkirk, Paisley, Edinburgh East, Gateshead, Rochdale, Bermondsey West, Southwark Central, Newcastle upon Tyne East, Newcastle upon Tyne West, Burslem, Middlesbrough East, Elland, Keighley, Penistone, Bradford South, Dewsbury Conservative Party (UK)7Motherwell, Barrow-in-Furness, Liverpool West Toxteth, Lincoln, Peckham, Wolverhampton Bilston, Birmingham King's NortonLabour gains:23Liberal Party (UK) Labour Party (UK)8Walthamstow West, Bristol North, Hackney South, Norwich (one of two), Bradford East, Batley and Morley, Wrexham, Swansea West Independent Liberal1Cardiganshire *Liberal gains:9Conservative Party (UK) Labour Party (UK)55Stirlingshire West, Renfrewshire East, Dunbartonshire, Lanark, Glasgow Partick, Lanarkshire North, Renfrewshire West, Glasgow Maryhill, Kilmarnock, Midlothian & Peebles North, Linlithgow, Berwick & Haddington, Reading, Birkenhead West, Crewe, Carlisle, Whitehaven, Derby (one of two), Barnard Castle, Leyton East, East Ham North, Essex SE, Maldon, Upton, Dartford, Gravesend, Bolton (one of two), Eccles, Oldham (one of two), Salford North, Salford South, Salford West, Warrington, Leicester East, Holland with Boston†, Greenwich, Kennington, Hammersmith North, St Pancras North, St Pancras South East, Norfolk South, Norwich (one of two), Kettering, Northampton, Enfield, Tottenham South, The Wrekin, Frome, Lichfield, Ipswich, Coventry, Wakefield, Bradford Central, Pontefract, Cardiff South Liberal Party (UK)106Bodmin, Cornwall North, Penryn and Falmouth, St Ives, Banff, East Aberdeenshire & Kincardineshire, Aberdeen and Kincardine Central, Forfarshire, Perth, Fife East, Argyll, Edinburgh West, Edinburgh North, Dumfriesshire, Galloway, Bedfordshire Mid, Luton, Abingdon, Newbury, Aylesbury, Wycombe, Huntingdonshire, Isle of Ely, Altrincham, Birkenhead East, Stalybridge and Hyde, Stockport (one of two), Wirral, Barnstaple, South Molton, Tavistock, Tiverton, Torquay, Totnes, Dorset North, Stockton-on-Tees, The Hartlepools, Chelmsford, Harwich, Stroud, Thornbury, Basingstoke, Portsmouth Central, Isle of Wight, Hemel Hempstead, Kingston upon Hull South West, Sevenoaks, Blackpool, Darwen, Lancaster, Lonsdale, Preston (one of two), Manchester Blackley, Manchester Exchange, Manchester Moss Side, Manchester Rusholme, Manchester Withington, Royton, Bootle, Liverpool Wavertree, Liverpool West Derby, Southport, Bosworth, Harborough, Leicester South, Gainsborough, Horncastle, Louth, Hackney North, Brixton, Islington East, Camberwell North-West, Hackney Central, Stoke Newington, Great Yarmouth, King's Lynn, Norfolk East, Hexham, Nottingham Central, Nottingham East, Finchley, Willesden East, Oxford†, Shrewsbury, Bath, Bridgwater, Taunton, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, Walsall, Sudbury, Chichester, Nuneaton, Rugby, Chippenham, Westbury, Devizes, Salisbury, Cleveland, Bradford North, Sowerby, Flintshire, Pembrokeshire, Brecon and Radnor, Cardiff East National Liberal Party (UK, 1922)1Loughborough Independent politician1Harrow1Conservative gains:163Constitutionalist (UK) Liberal Party (UK)5Accrington, Heywood and Radcliffe, Stretford, Stoke, Camborne Conservative Party (UK)2Epping, Walthamstow East Ulster Unionist Party Nationalist Party (Northern Ireland)2Fermanagh and Tyrone (both seats) 1 Previous MP had defected to Labour by the time of the 1924 election See also List of MPs elected in the 1924 United Kingdom general election 1924 United Kingdom general election in England 1924 United Kingdom general election in Scotland 1924 United Kingdom general election in Wales 1924 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland 1924 in the United Kingdom Notes note References Further reading Adelman, Paul. The decline of the Liberal Party 1910–1931 (Routledge, 2014). F. W. S. Craig F. W. S. Craig British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987 1989 Dartmouth Gower 0900178302 Walker, Graham, and James Greer. "Religion, Labour, and National Questions: The General Election of 1924 in Belfast and Lanarkshire1." Labour History Review 84.3 (2019): 217–240. External links United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979 https://web.archive.org/web/20201008002213/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/geresults.html 8 October 2020 Manifestos 1924 Conservative manifesto 1924 Labour manifesto 1924 Liberal manifesto 1924 General election Category:October 1924 in the United Kingdom Category:Ramsay MacDonald Category:Stanley Baldwin Category:H. H. Asquith