1950 United Kingdom general election

1950 United Kingdom general election
23 February 1950
All 625 seats in the House of Commons
313 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout28,771,124
83.9% (11.1 pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader Clement Attlee Winston Churchill Clement Davies
Party Labour Conservative Liberal
Leader since 25 October 1935 9 October 1940 2 August 1945
Leader's seat Walthamstow West[a] Woodford Montgomeryshire
Last election 393 seats, 49.7% 208 seats, 39.1%[b] 12 seats, 9.0%
Seats won 315 298[note 1] 9
Seat change 78 90 3
Popular vote 13,226,176 12,494,404 2,621,487
Percentage 46.1% 43.4% 9.1%
Swing 3.6 pp 4.3 pp 0.1 pp
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the House of Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election

Clement Attlee
Labour

Prime Minister after election

Clement Attlee
Labour

The 1950 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 23 February 1950, and was the first after a full term of a majority Labour government. It was also the first general election after the abolition of plural voting and university constituencies. The general election saw Labour returned to power, but its majority was dramatically reduced from 146 seats to just 5, with a sizeable swing towards the Conservatives, who gained 90 seats.

Another general election was called for the following year, which the Conservative Party won, returning Churchill to power after six years in opposition. Turnout in this general election increased to 83.9%, the highest turnout in a United Kingdom general election under universal suffrage,[1] and represented an increase of 11.1 percentage points from 72.8% turnout in 1945.

1950 was also the first general election to be covered on television, although no recording was made of the live broadcast, which was the standard practice at the time. Richard Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage of the election, which he would later do again for the 1951, 1955, 1959 and the 1964 general elections. On this occasion, Dimbleby was joined in the BBC Alexandra Palace studios by R. B. McCallum, Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, and author of The British General Election of 1945, and David Butler, research student of Nuffield College. The programme ran from 10:45 pm until just after 1:00 am.[2]

Background

Labour had governed the nation ever since their landslide in 1945. During its first term in office, the government introduced several major reforms: a National Health Service was established, around 20% of the economy was nationalised, a comprehensive system of social security was implemented, and, under the New Towns Act 1946, development corporations were set up to construct new towns.

Britain was confronted with severe economic challenges: Britain faced a large national debt,[3] its industries were weakened, and there were many shortages of food and raw materials. As a result, the Labour government continued rationing, and austerity was implemented, relying heavily on American loans and the Marshall Plan. While these measures were enacted to contain inflationary pressures, the British public suffered a fatigue. This prevented the Labour government from implementing some of its ambitious programmes.

Before the general election, major significant changes to the electoral system had occured, including the abolition of plural voting by the Representation of the People Act 1948, and a major reorganisation of constituencies by the House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1949. Eleven new English seats were created and six were abolished, and there were over 170 major alterations to constituencies across the country.

Prime Minister Clement Attlee planned to call a summer general election. However, his Chancellor, Stafford Cripps, refused to present a budget before a general election.[4] As a result, Attlee was persuaded to call a February general election. Parliament was dissolved on 3 February 1950.[5]

Campaign

The Conservatives, having recovered from their landslide election defeat in 1945, accepted the broad framework of the welfare state and nationalisation that had taken place under the Attlee government, which included the National Health Service and the mixed economy. The Conservative manifesto, This Is The Road, accepted the new welfare state's foundations but critised what it saw as the loss of freedoms and aspirations under Labour, with Churchill claiming Attlee hadn't "levelled up" but had actually "levelled down".[6]

The campaign essentially focused on the possible future nationalisation of other sectors and industries, which was opposed by the Conservatives but supported by Labour. The Liberals essentially viewed the struggle between the two parties on this issue as a class struggle.[7]

One of the major election issues was the rationing still in effect on petrol, confectionery and meats over five years after the end of the war. The Conservative Party promised to phase out rationing while Labour campaigned for its continuation as necessary for economic stability.[8]

The Liberal Party fielded 475 candidates, more than at any general election since 1929. Liberal Party leader Clement Davies felt that the party had been at a disadvantage at the 1945 general election when they ran fewer candidates than needed to form a government. Davies arranged for the cost of running extra candidates to be offset by the party taking out insurance with Lloyd's of London against more than fifty candidates losing their deposits.

In the event, the strategy only succeeded in causing a very marginal increase in the overall Liberal vote over the previous election (although it was still their best popular vote percentage since 1929); the number of votes per candidate declined sharply, resulting in them losing a further three seats from their already-disappointing 1945 showing. A total of 319 Liberal candidates lost their deposits, a record number[9] until the 2015 general election, when candidates for the Liberal Democrats lost 335 deposits at the general election held in that year.[10]

Results

Despite losing 78 seats, the Labour Party won an overall majority of 5 seats, down from 146 in the previous election, while their vote share declined modestly. The Conservatives saw a resurgence in their support, gaining an additional 90 seats and saw their vote share improve by more than 4 percentage points.

Analysis showed that Labour suffered huge losses of seats due to a "revolt of the suburbs", with substantial swings against them among Middle England voters in London, the Home Counties, Essex and Middlesex. The effects of the Labour government's austerity, and inflation had hit middle income voters hard. In particular, rationing of basic foods like bread and powdered egg was incredibly unpopular. While campaigning in Leicester, Attlee was met with "catcalls" and chants of "vermin" while Hugh Gaitskell sensed there was "a collection of grievances among the lower middle class and middle class" against Labour.[6]

Prominent personalities entering Parliament in this election included Edward Heath (Bexley), Jo Grimond (Orkney and Shetland), Enoch Powell (Wolverhampton South West), Reginald Maudling (Barnet) and Iain Macleod (Enfield West).

Scottish politician Willie Gallacher lost his West Fife seat to Labour; he was the last MP in Parliament for the Communist Party of Great Britain.

The election began the fractionalization of the Labour Party into Bevanite and Gaitskellite factions after Hugh Gaitskell blamed Aneurin Bevan for their party's disappointing performance, leading to a growing rift between the two.[11]

UK general election 1950
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Labour Clement Attlee 617 315 −78 50.4 46.1 13,266,176 −3.6
  Conservative Winston Churchill 619 298 +90 47.7 43.4 12,492,404 +4.3
  Liberal Clement Davies 475 9 3 6 −3 1.4 9.1 2,621,487 +0.1
  Communist Harry Pollitt 100 0 0 2 −2 0.3 91,765 −0.1
  Nationalist James McSparran 2 2 0 0 0 0.3 0.2 65,211 −0.2
  Irish Labour William Norton 2 0 0 0 0 0.2 52,715 N/A
  Independent N/A 15 0 0 0 0 0.2 50,299 −0.4
  Independent Labour N/A 6 0 0 0 0 0.1 26,395 −0.2
  Ind. Conservative N/A 3 0 0 0 0 0.1 24,732 −0.1
  Sinn Féin Paddy McLogan 2 0 0 0 0 0.1 23,362 N/A
  Labour Independent Group Denis Pritt 4 0 0 0 0 0 0.1 19,013 N/A
  Plaid Cymru Gwynfor Evans 7 0 0 0 0 0.1 17,580 +0.1
  Independent Liberal N/A 2 1 0 1 −1 0.2 0.1 15,066
  SNP Robert McIntyre 3 0 0 0 0 0.0 9,708 −0.1
  Anti-Partition James McSparran 4 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,084 N/A
  Ind. Labour Party David Gibson 4 0 0 3 −3 0.0 4,112 −0.2
  Independent Liberal and Conservative N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,551 N/A
  National Independent N/A 1 0 0 2 −2 0.0 1,380 −0.3
  Mudiad Gweriniaethol Cymru N/A 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 613 N/A
  Social Credit John Hargrave 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 551 N/A
  United Socialist Guy Aldred 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 485
  Socialist (GB) N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 448
Total votes cast: 28,771,124. Turnout: 83.9%.[12][c]

Votes summary

Popular vote
Labour
 
 46.11%
Conservative
 
 43.42%
Liberal
 
 9.11%
Others
 
 1.36%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats
Labour
 
 50.40%
Conservative
 
 47.68%
Liberal
 
 1.44%
Others
 
 0.48%

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Represented Limehouse until the election.
  2. ^ Conservatives, Unionists and UUP 197 seats, 36.2%; Liberal Nationals 11 seats, 2.9% (merged with Conservatives in 1947).
  3. ^ All parties shown. Conservative total includes Liberal National Party, (Scottish) Unionists and Ulster Unionists.
  1. ^ The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

References

  1. ^ Parliamentary Government in Britain, Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1981, page 104
  2. ^ "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  3. ^ "History of the British National Debt". Logbook Loans 247. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  4. ^ "General Election 1950". BBC News. Retrieved 12 July 2025.
  5. ^ "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Masters No More: Clement Attlee and the 'Revolt of the Suburbs'". The Critic. 23 February 2021. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
  7. ^ "1950: Labour majority slashed". BBC News. 5 April 2005. Retrieved 13 May 2018.
  8. ^ Kynaston, David (2007). Austerity Britain, 1945–1951. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-7985-4.
  9. ^ De Groot 1993.
  10. ^ "Liberal Democrats face soaring fines for failing to win enough votes". Spectator Blogs. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
  11. ^ Campbell, John (2010). Pistols at Dawn: Two Hundred Years of Political Rivalry from Pitt and Fox to Blair and Brown. London: Vintage. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-84595-091-0. OCLC 489636152.
  12. ^ "Voter turnout at UK general elections 1945–2015". UK Political Info.

Sources

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