1935 United Kingdom general election

The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November, and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party. The greatest number of members, as before, were Conservatives, while the National Liberal vote held steady. The much smaller National Labour vote also held steady but the resurgence in the main Labour vote caused over a third of their MPs, including National Labour leader (and former Prime Minister) Ramsay MacDonald, to lose their seats. It was the last election in which the largest party won a majority of votes cast.

1935 United Kingdom general election
14 November 1935
All 615 seats in the House of Commons
308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout71.1%, Decrease5.3%
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee John Simon
Party Conservative Labour National Liberal
Alliance National Government National Government
Leader since 23 May 1923 25 October 1935 5 October 1931
Leader's seat Bewdley Limehouse Spen Valley
Last election 470 seats, 55% 52 seats, 30.8% 35 seats, 3.7%
Seats won 386[note 1] 154 33
Seat change Decrease86 Increase102 Decrease2
Popular vote 10,025,083 7,984,988 784,608
Percentage 47.8% 38.0% 3.7%
Swing Decrease7.2% Increase7.4% Steady
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Leader Herbert Samuel Ramsay MacDonald James Maxton
Party Liberal National Labour Ind. Labour Party
Alliance National Government
Leader since 1931 24 August 1931 1934
Leader's seat Darwen (defeated) Seaham (defeated) Glasgow Bridgeton
Last election 33 seats, 6.5% 13 seats, 1.5% Part of Labour
Seats won 21 8 4
Seat change Decrease12 Decrease5 Increase4
Popular vote 1,414,010 321,028 136,208
Percentage 6.7% 1.5% 0.7%
Swing Increase0.2% Steady New party
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election

Stanley Baldwin
National

 Prime Minister after election

Stanley Baldwin
National

Labour, under what was then regarded internally as the caretaker leadership of Clement Attlee following the resignation of George Lansbury slightly over a month before, made large gains over their very poor showing at the 1931 general election, and saw their highest share of the vote yet. They made a net gain of over a hundred seats, thus reversing much of the ground lost in 1931. The Liberals, who had split from the National Government, continued a slow political decline, with their leader, Sir Herbert Samuel, losing his seat.

The Independent Labour Party stood entirely separately from Labour for the first time since 1895, having stood candidates unendorsed by Labour at the 1931 general election and having disaffiliated fully from Labour in 1932. The Scottish National Party contested their first general election, and the Communist Party gained the West Fife seat, their first in ten years. Major election issues were stubborn unemployment and the role of the League of Nations, particularly regarding the Empire of Japan. Parliament was dissolved on 25 October.[1]

No general elections were held during the Second World War until Allied victory was assured via acts of Parliament; hence the 1935 House sat until 1945. This parliament would see two leadership changes. Neville Chamberlain took over from Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister and Tory Leader in 1937. He in turn resigned in 1940 in favour of Winston Churchill, who led the three main parties in Parliament in government for the war.

This was the last election to be held during the reign of George V, who would die two months after the election.

Results
UK General Election 1935
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
National Government
  Conservative Stanley Baldwin 515 387 5 88 −83 62.9 47.8 10,025,083 −7.2
  National Liberal John Simon 44 33 5 7 −2 5.4 3.7 784,608 0.0
  National Labour Ramsay MacDonald 20 8 1 6 −5 1.3 1.5 321,028 0.0
  National N/A 4 1 1 4 −3 0.2 0.3 53,189 −0.2
National Government (total) Stanley Baldwin 583 429 12 139 −125 69.8 51.8 11,183,908 −15.4
Opposition
  Labour Clement Attlee 552 154 105 3 +102 25.0 38.0 7,984,988 +7.4
  Liberal Herbert Samuel 161 21 3 15 −12 3.4 6.7 1,414,010 −0.3
  Ind. Labour Party James Maxton 17 4 4 0 +4 0.7 0.7 136,208 N/A
  Independent Liberals (UK, 1931) David Lloyd George 5[2] 4 0 0 0 0.7 0.3 67,653 −0.2
  Nationalist Thomas J. Campbell 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 50,747 −0.1
  Independent Republican N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 46,715 N/A
  Independent National N/A 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 33,527 N/A
  SNP Alexander MacEwen 8 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.2 29,517 0.0
  Ind. Conservative N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 29,475 N/A
  Communist Harry Pollitt 2 1 1 0 0 0.2 0.1 27,177 −0.2
  Independent N/A 5 2 1 0 0 0.3 0.1 +0.1
  Independent Labour N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.1 14,867 0.0
  Liverpool Protestant Harry Longbottom 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 6,677 0.0
  Independent Progressive N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 6,421 N/A
  Social Credit John Hargrave 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 10,376 N/A
  Plaid Cymru Saunders Lewis 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 2,534 0.0
  Agriculturalist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,771 N/A
  Christian Socialist N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 0.0 1,480 N/A
Total votes cast: 20,991,488. Turnout: 71.1%.[3]
All parties shown. Conservatives include the Ulster and Scottish Unionists.

Votes summary
Popular vote
Conservative
 
 47.76%
Labour
 
 38.04%
Liberal
 
 6.74%
Liberal National
 
 3.74%
National Labour
 
 1.53%
Others
 
 2.20%
Popular vote (as National Gov't)
National Gov't
 
 53.28%
Labour
 
 38.04%
Liberal
 
 6.74%
Others
 
 1.95%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Conservative
 
 62.93%
Labour
 
 25.04%
Liberal National
 
 5.37%
Liberal
 
 3.41%
National Labour
 
 1.30%
Others
 
 1.95%
Parliamentary seats (as National Gov't)
National Gov't
 
 69.76%
Labour
 
 25.04%
Liberal
 
 3.41%
Others
 
 1.79%

Transfers of seats
  • All comparisons are with the 1931 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 1935. Such circumstances are marked with a †.
To From No. Seats
Communist Conservative 1 Fife West
Ind. Labour Party 1 Camlachie
Labour Liberal 11 Edinburgh East, South Shields, Durham, Bethnal Green North-East†, Lambeth North†, Whitechapel and St Georges, Middlesbrough East, Dewsbury, Colne Valley, Wrexham, Carmarthen
National Labour 6 Ilkeston, Seaham, Forest of Dean, Finsbury, Tottenham South, Bassetlaw
National Liberal 7 Western Isles, Dunfermline Burghs, Bishop Auckland, Consett, Shoreditch, Barnsley, Burnley
National Independent 2 Southwark Central, Burslem[lower-alpha 1]
Conservative 79 Aberdeen North, Stirling and Falkirk, Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire, Stirlingshire West, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Maryhill, Motherwell, Bothwell, Coatbridge, Springburn, Tradeston, Ayrshire South, Linlithgow, Whitehaven, Derbyshire North East, Chesterfield, Blaydon, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield, East Ham S, Leyton West, Romford, Upton†, Bristol South, Kingston upon Hull Central, Kingston upon Hull East, Ashton-under-Lyne, Farnworth, Ardwick, Clayton, Gorton, Platting, Rochdale, Everton, West Toxteth, Newton, St Helens, Brigg, Battersea North, Camberwell North, Deptford, Hackney Central , Hackney South, Hammersmith North†, Islington South, Islington West, Rotherhithe, Southwark South East, Mile End, Willesden West, Edmonton, Tottenham North, Morpeth, Nottingham West, Cannock, Hanley, Kingswinford, Leek, Stoke, Wednesbury†, West Bromwich, Nuneaton, Shipley, Wakefield†, Sheffield Park, Rotherham†, Bradford Central, Keighley, Pontefract, Hillsborough, Attercliffe, Brightside, Penistone, Leeds South, Doncaster, Batley and Morley, Nelson and Colne
Labour gains: 105
Liberal Conservative 3 Cumberland North, Barnstaple, Berwick-upon-Tweed
National Labour Liberal 1 Leicester West
National Liberal 1 Walsall*
Conservative 2 Sunderland (one of two), Oldham (one of two)
National Liberal gains: 3
National Independent Conservative 1 Brecon and Radnor
Conservative Liberal 4 Orkney and Shetland, Banff, Bodmin, Darwen
National Liberal 1 Flintshire[lower-alpha 2]
Conservative gains: 5
  1. Sitting MP had defected to National Liberals.
  2. Sitting MP had defected to Liberals.

Constituency results

These are available on the Political Science Resources Elections Database, a link to which is given below.

See also

References
  1. "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  2. Includes Percy McDougall, who was not formally endorsed by Lloyd George's group, but used the same Independent Liberal label while running in Manchester Rusholme
  3. Tetteh, Edmund (1 February 2008). "Election Statistics: UK 1918–2007". parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  1. The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

Further reading
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  • Fry, Geoffrey K. (1991), "A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945", History, 76 (246): 43–55, doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1991.tb01533.x
  • Stannage, Tom (1980), Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition: The British General Election of 1935, London: Croom Helm, ISBN 0709903413

Manifestos
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