December 1910 United Kingdom general election

The December 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last general election to be held over several days[1] and the last to be held before the First World War.

December 1910 United Kingdom general election
3–19 December 1910 (1910-12-03 – 1910-12-19)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons
336 seats needed for a majority
Turnout81.6%
  First party Second party
 
Leader H. H. Asquith Arthur Balfour
Party Liberal Conservative and Liberal Unionist
Leader since 30 April 1908 11 June 1902
Leader's seat East Fife City of London
Last election 274 seats, 43.5% 272 seats, 46.8%
Seats won 272 271
Seat change Decrease2 Decrease1
Popular vote 2,157,256 2,270,753
Percentage 44.2% 46.6%
Swing Increase0.7% Decrease0.3%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader John Redmond George Barnes
Party Irish Parliamentary Labour
Leader since 6 February 1900 14 February 1910
Leader's seat Waterford City Glasgow Blackfriars
and Hutchesontown
Last election 71 seats, 1.2% 40 seats, 7.0%
Seats won 74 42
Seat change Increase3 Increase2
Popular vote 90,416 309,963
Percentage 1.9% 6.4%
Swing Increase0.7% Decrease0.6%
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election

H. H. Asquith
Liberal

 Prime Minister after election

H. H. Asquith
Liberal

The election took place following the efforts of the Liberal government to pass its People's Budget in 1909, which raised taxes on the wealthy to fund social welfare programmes. The 1909 budget was only agreed to by the House of Lords in April 1910 after the January general election in which the Liberals and the Irish Parliamentary Party gained a majority. The Government called a further election in December 1910 to get a mandate for the Parliament Act 1911, which would prevent the House of Lords from permanently blocking legislation linked to money bills ever again, and to obtain King George V's agreement to threaten to create sufficient Liberal peers to pass that act (in the event this did not prove necessary, as the Lords voted to curtail their own powers).[2]

The Conservative Party, led by Arthur Balfour with their Liberal Unionist allies, and the Liberal Party, led by Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, almost exactly repeated the numerical result produced in the January election, with the Conservatives again winning the largest number of votes. The Liberal Party under Asquith remained in government with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party. This was the last election in which the Liberals won the highest number of seats in the House of Commons. It was also the last United Kingdom general election in which a party other than Labour or the Conservatives won the most seats.

Results
England and Wales seat winners
UK General Election December 1910
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net  % of total  % No. Net %
  Conservative and Liberal Unionist Arthur Balfour 548 271 −1 40.4 46.6 2,270,753 −0.3
  Liberal H. H. Asquith 467 272 −2 40.6 44.2 2,157,256 +0.7
  Labour George Barnes 56 42 5 3 +2 6.3 6.4 309,963 −0.6
  Irish Parliamentary John Redmond 81 74 5 2 +3 11.0 1.9 90,416 +0.7
  All-for-Ireland William O'Brien 21 8 2 2 0 1.2 0.6 30,322 +0.2
  Social Democratic Federation H. M. Hyndman 2 0 0 0 0 0.1 5,733 −0.1
  Ind. Conservative N/A 4 1 1 1 0 0.1 0.1 4,647
  Independent Labour N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0.1 3,492
  Independent Liberal N/A 1 0 0 1 −1 0.0 1,946
  Scottish Prohibition Edwin Scrymgeour 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 913
  Independent Nationalist N/A 4 2 0 1 −1 0.3 0.0 911
  Independent N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 57
Total votes cast: 4,876,409.[3]
Electorate: 7,709,981 (6,011,004 in contested seats)
Turnout: 81.6% [4]

Voting summary
Popular vote
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 46.57%
Liberal
 
 44.23%
Labour
 
 6.36%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 1.85%
All-for-Ireland
 
 0.23%
Others
 
 0.78%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Liberal
 
 40.60%
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 40.45%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 11.04%
Labour
 
 6.27%
All-for-Ireland
 
 1.19%
Others
 
 0.45%

See also

References
  1. "General Election Dates 1832–2005" (PDF), parliament.uk
  2. Somervell, D. C. (1936), The Reign of King George V
  3. All parties shown.
  4. "General Election Results 1885-1979". Archived from the original on 30 January 2012.

Further reading
  • Blewett, Neal (1972), Peers, the Parties and the People: General Elections of 1910
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  • Pelling, Henry (1967), Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910

Manifestos
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