1885 United Kingdom general election

The 1885 United Kingdom general election was held from 24 November to 18 December 1885. This was the first general election after an extension of the franchise and redistribution of seats. For the first time a majority of adult males could vote and most constituencies by law returned a single member to Parliament, fulfilling one of the ideals of Chartism to provide direct single-member, single-electorate accountability. It saw the Liberals, led by William Gladstone, win the most seats, but not an overall majority. As the Irish Nationalists held the balance of power between them and the Conservatives who sat with an increasing number of allied Unionist MPs (referring to the Union of Great Britain and Ireland), this exacerbated divisions within the Liberals over Irish Home Rule and led to a Liberal split and another general election the following year.

1885 United Kingdom general election
24 November – 18 December 1885 (1885-11-24 – 1885-12-18)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout81.2%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader William Gladstone Marquess of Salisbury Charles Stewart Parnell
Party Liberal Conservative Irish Parliamentary
Leader since April 1880 April 1881 17 October 1882
Leader's seat Midlothian None (Lord) Cork City
Last election 352 seats, 52.5% 237 seats, 35.4% 63 seats, 9.4%
Seats won 319 247 86
Seat change Decrease33 Increase10 Increase23
Popular vote 2,071,868 1,869,560 299,178
Percentage 47.7% 43.0% 6.9%
Swing Decrease7.0% Increase0.5% Increase4.1%
Prime Minister before election

Marquess of Salisbury
Conservative

 Prime Minister after election

William Gladstone
Liberal

The 1885 election saw the first socialist party participate, with the Social Democratic Federation led by H. M. Hyndman standing three candidates.

Results
UK General Election 1885
Party Candidates Votes
Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
  Liberal 575 319 −33 47.61 47.65 2,071,868 −7.3
  Conservative 597 247 +10 36.87 43.00 1,869,560 +0.9
  Irish Parliamentary 91 86 +23 12.84 6.88 299,178 +4.0
  Independent Liberal 35 11 +11 1.64 1.28 55,652 N/A
  Crofters 6 4 +4 0.60 0.38 16,551 N/A
  Ind. Conservative 8 2 +2 0.30 0.29 12,599 N/A
  Lib-Lab 4 1 +1 0.15 0.19 8,232 N/A
  Independent 6 0 0 0 0.15 6,570 N/A
  Independent Nationalist 2 0 0 0 0.07 2,889 N/A
  Scottish Land Restoration 5 0 0 0 0.05 2,359 N/A
  Irish Loyalist 6 0 0 0 0.04 1,869 N/A
  Social Democratic Federation 3 0 0 0 0.02 657 N/A
Total votes cast: 4,347,984.[1]
Electorate: 5,708,030 (5,429,708 in contested seats)
Turnout: 81.2%[2]

Voting summary
Popular vote
Liberal
 
 47.65%
Conservative
 
 43.00%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 6.88%
Independent Liberal
 
 1.28%
Crofters
 
 0.38%
Independent Conservative
 
 0.29%
Lib-Lab
 
 0.19%
Independent
 
 0.15%
Others
 
 0.18%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Liberal
 
 47.61%
Conservative
 
 36.87%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 12.84%
Independent Liberal
 
 1.64%
Crofters
 
 0.60%
Independent Conservative
 
 0.30%
Lib-Lab
 
 0.15%

See also

Notes
  1. All parties shown.
  2. "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012.

References

Further reading
  • Roberts, Matthew. "Election Cartoons and Political Communication In Victorian England.' Cultural & Social History (2013) 10#3 pp 369–395, covers 1860 to 1890.
  • Walker, Brian (2005), "The 1885 and 1886 General Elections in Ireland", History Ireland, 13 (6): 36–40, JSTOR 27725365
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