United Kingdom general election, 1951

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The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held soon after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party won, but with a very slim majority. They called an election on October 25, 1951, hoping to win more seats, but instead lost to the Conservative Party, who were able to form a government, with a workable majority (when the National Liberals were included) of 17, despite gaining fewer votes than Labour (even when the National Liberal vote total was included) and despite Labour polling more votes than in the last election. This was the only universal-suffrage election where the popular vote-loser gained a majority, although Labour gained a plurality of seats against the pattern of votes in 1929 and in the first election of 1974.

[edit] Results

UK General Election 1951
Party Seats Gains Losses Net Gain/Loss Seats % Votes % Votes +/-
  Labour 295 3 23 - 20 48.8 13,948,883
  Conservative 302 20 0 + 20 44.3 12,660,061
  National Liberal 19 3 0 + 3 3.7 1,058,138
  Liberal 6 1 4 - 3 2.5 730,546
  Independent Nationalist 2 0 0 0 0.3 92,787
  Irish Labour 1 1 0 0 0.1 33,174
  Communist 0 0 0 0 0.1 21,640
  Independent 0 0 0 0 0.1 19,791
  Plaid Cymru 0 0 0 0 0.0 10,920
  Scottish National Party 0 0 0 0 0.0 7,299
  Independent Conservative 0 0 0 0 0.0 5,904
  Ind. Labour Party 0 0 0 0 0.0 4,057
  British Empire 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,643
  Anti-Partition 0 0 0 0 0.0 1,340
  Independent Socialist 0 0 0 0 0.0 411

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

[edit] See also

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