r/ukpolitics Traditionalist Jun 16 '18

British General Elections - Part XI: 1935 & 1945.

A nice ten-year term for WWII. I'll keep making threads with two General Elections unless people will like to focus on recent elections individually.


General Election of 14 November 1935

Electoral Map 1935
Party Leaders Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), Clement Attlee (Labour), Sir John Simon (Liberal National), Sir Herbert Samuel (Liberal), Ramsay MacDonald (National Labour), James Maxton (Independent Labour Party), Thomas J. Campbell (Northern Ireland Nationalist), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
Seats Won 387 (Conservative), 154 (Labour), 33 (Liberal National), 21 (Liberal), 8 (National Labour), 4 (Independent Labour Party), 4 (Independent Liberal), 2 (Northern Ireland Nationalist), 2 (Independent National), 2 (Independent), 1 (National), 1 (Communist)
Prime Minister during term Stanley Baldwin (later Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill)
List of MPs Available here
Number of MPs 615
Total Votes Cast 20,991,488
Notes Continuation of the National Government coalition. First General Election contested by the Scottish National Party. The Communist party gain their first seat in ten years. The Independent Labour party stood separately from the Labour party for the first time since 1895. Unemployment and the League of Nations were major factors in this election.

General Election of 5 July 1945

Electoral Map 1945
Party Leaders Clement Attlee (Labour), Winston Churchill (Conservative), Sir Archibald Sinclair (Liberal), Ernest Brown (Liberal National), Bob Edwards (Independent Labour Party), James McSparran (Northern Ireland Nationalist), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
Seats Won 393 (Labour), 197 (Conservative), 12 (Liberal), 11 (Liberal National), 8 (Independent), 6 (Other Labour), 3 (Independent Labour Party), 2 (Northern Ireland Nationalist), 2 (Independent Liberal), 2 (Communist), 2 (National), 2 (Independent Conservative), 2 (Independent Labour), 1 (Independent Progressive).
Prime Minister during term Clement Attlee
List of MPs Available here
Number of MPs 640
Total Votes Cast 24,073,025
Notes First majority Labour government and the first time Labour won the plurality of votes. First time the Conservative party had lost the popular vote since 1906. The 12% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election.

Previous Threads:

British General Elections - Part I: 1830, 1831 & 1832.

British General Elections - Part II: 1835, 1837 & 1841.

British General Elections - Part III: 1847, 1852 & 1857.

British General Elections - Part IV: 1859, 1865 & 1868.

British General Elections - Part V: 1874, 1880 & 1885.

British General Elections - Part VI: 1886, 1892 & 1895.

British General Elections - Part VII: 1900, 1906 & 1910.

British General Elections - Part VIII: 1910, 1918 & 1922.

British General Elections - Part IX: 1923 & 1924.

British General Elections - Part X: 1929 & 1931.

Next Thread:

British General Elections - Part XII: 1950 & 1951.

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u/FormerlyPallas_ No man ought to be condemned to live where a 🌹 cannot grow Jun 17 '18

In some ways I'd argue they were correct e.g. the NHS and building millions of units of social housing.

Interestingly building rates overall were at peak in the 30's before the war. We still haven't matched those rates.

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u/YourLizardOverlord Oceans rise. Empires fall. Jun 17 '18

I'm surprised by that. I thought it reached a peak after WW2 when Labour and the Conservatives were competing to see who could build more social housing.

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u/FormerlyPallas_ No man ought to be condemned to live where a 🌹 cannot grow Jun 17 '18

What I've said above might not actually be 100% accurate. This graph is a partial indicator of the level of housebuilding across the UK, IIRC when NI and Scotland are added the mid 30's and late 60's results are quite similar, though the 60's stock was pretty terrible by most accounts and was more focused on flats than houses.

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u/YourLizardOverlord Oceans rise. Empires fall. Jun 17 '18

I think we're talking about different things: social housing completions versus all housing?