United Kingdom general election, 1951

25 October 1951

All 625 seats in the House of Commons 313 seats needed for a majority

Turnout	82.6%
	First party	Second party	Third party

Leader	Winston Churchill	Clement Attlee	Clement Davies
Party	Conservative	Labour	Liberal
Leader since	9 October 1940	25 October 1935	2 August 1945
Leader's seat	Woodford	Walthamstow West	Montgomeryshire
Last election	298 seats (total strength)	315 seats	9 seats, 9.1%
Seats won	321 (total strength)	295	6
Seat change	22	20	3
Popular vote	13,717,850	13,948,385	730,546
Percentage	48.0%	48.8%	2.5%
Swing	5.6%	2.7%	6.6%

PM before election

Clement Attlee
Labour

Subsequent PM

Winston Churchill
Conservative

1945 election • MPs
1950 election • MPs
1951 election • MPs
1955 election • MPs

The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held twenty months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. Labour called the election for 25 October 1951 hoping to increase their majority.

Attlee had decided to call the election after the King's concerns over leaving the country to go on his Commonwealth tour in 1952 with a government that had such a slim majority. The Labour government, which by now had implemented most of its 1945 manifesto, was now beginning to lose many cabinet ministers such as Ernest Bevin due to old age. The Conservatives however, due to the recent election, looked more fresh with more new MPs. As Labour began to have some policy splits during the election campaign, the Conservatives ran an efficient campaign that was well funded and orchestrated. As for the Liberals, the poor election results in 1950 only got worse.^[1]

The subsequent Labour defeat is significant for several reasons: the party polled almost a quarter of a million votes more than the Conservatives and their National Liberal allies combined, won the most votes that Labour had ever won (and has ever won as of 2014) and won the most votes of any political party in any election in British political history, a record surpassed by the Conservative Party in 1992. Despite this, it was the Conservatives who formed the next government with a majority of 16. In addition (but less significantly) under the first past the post electoral system, Labour votes translated into increased majorities for MPs in safe seats, rather than into gaining new seats. This was the second of three elections in the 20th Century, where a party lost the popular vote but won the most seats, the others being 1929 and February 1974; it also happened in 1874.

A factor that almost certainly boosted the margin of Labour's victory in the popular vote, was the unopposed return of four Conservative Party candidates. This was the last general election in which any candidates were returned unopposed, although there have since been unopposed by-elections.^[2]

1 Results
- 1.1 Votes summary
- 1.2 Seats summary
2 Seats changing hands
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 Manifestos

Results

↓
321	295	6	3
Conservative/Liberal National	Labour	Lib	O

UK General Election 1951
		Candidates						Votes
Party		Standing	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Labour	617	295	2	22	- 20	47.20	48.78	13,948,883
	Conservative	562	302	20	1	+ 19	48.32	44.27	12,659,712
	Liberal National	55	19¹	3	0	+ 3	3.04¹	3.70¹	1,058,138¹
	Liberal	109	6	1	4	- 3	0.96	2.55	730,546
	Independent Nationalist	3	2	0	0	0	0.32	0.32	92,787
	Irish Labour	1	1	1	0	+1	0.16	0.12	33,174
	Communist	10	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.08	21,640
	Independent	6	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.07	19,791
	Plaid Cymru	4	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.04	10,920
	SNP	2	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.03	7,299
	Independent Conservative	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.02	5,904
	Ind. Labour Party	3	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.014	4,057
	British Empire	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.006	1,643
	Anti-Partition	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.005	1,340
	United Socialist	1	0	0	0	0	0.00	0.001	411

Total votes cast: 28,596,594. All parties shown. Conservative result includes the Ulster Unionists.

¹ The National Liberals were in alliance with the Conservatives, bringing total Conservative strength to 321 seats (51.36%); votes total 13,717,850 (47.97%).

Government's new majority	17
Total votes cast	28,596,594
Turnout	82.6%

Votes summary

Popular vote

Conservative			47.97%
Labour			48.78%
Liberal			2.55%
Independent			0.43%
Others			0.26%

Headline Swing: 1.13% to Conservative

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats

Conservative			51.36%
Labour			47.20%
Liberal			0.96%
Others			0.48%

Seats changing hands

From Conservative to Liberal (0 seats):
From Labour to Conservative (21 seats): Barry, Battersea South, Bedfordshire South, Berwick and East Lothian, Bolton East, Buckingham, Conway, Darlington, Doncaster, Dulwich, King's Lynn, Manchester Blackley, Middlesbrough West, Norfolk South West, Oldham East, Plymouth Sutton, Reading North, Rochdale, Rutherglen, Wycombe and Yarmouth
From Labour to Liberal (1 seat): Bolton West
From Liberal to Conservative (2 seats): Eye and Roxburgh
From Liberal to Labour (2 seats): Anglesey and Meirioneth
From Ulster Unionist to Irish Labour (1 seat): Belfast West

References

^ "UK | UK Politics | The Basics | past_elections | 1951: Churchill back in power at last". BBC News. 2005-04-05. Retrieved 2013-10-05.
^ "General Election Results 1885-1979". Election.demon.co.uk. Retrieved 2013-10-05.

Manifestos

CONSERVATIVE PARTY: 1951- 1951 Conservative manifesto.
Labour Party Election Manifesto - 1951 Labour Party manifesto.
The Nation's Task - 1951 Liberal Party manifesto.

Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom

General elections	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015

Local elections	1949 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014

Referendums	1975 2011

Elections and referendums in

United Kingdom general election, 1951