United Kingdom general election, 1945![United Kingdom](../I/m/Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom.svg.png)
|
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|
|
All 640 seats in the House of Commons 321 seats needed for a majority |
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Turnout |
72.8% ( 1.7%) |
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|
First party |
Second party |
|
![](../I/m/Clement_Attlee.png) |
![](../I/m/Churchill_portrait_NYP_45063.jpg) |
Leader |
Clement Attlee |
Winston Churchill |
Party |
Labour |
Conservative |
Leader since |
25 October 1935 |
9 October 1940 |
Leader's seat |
Limehouse |
Woodford |
Last election |
154 seats, 38.0% |
386 seats, 47.8% |
Seats won |
393 |
197 |
Seat change |
239 |
189 |
Popular vote |
11,967,746 |
8,716,211 |
Percentage |
47.7% |
36.2% |
Swing |
11.7% |
11.6% |
|
|
Third party |
Fourth party |
|
![](../I/m/The_Air_Ministry%2C_1939-1945._CH10270.jpg) |
|
Leader |
Archibald Sinclair |
Ernest Brown |
Party |
Liberal |
Liberal National |
Leader since |
26 November 1935 |
1940 |
Leader's seat |
Caithness & Sutherland (defeated) |
Leith (defeated) |
Last election |
21 seats, 6.7% |
33 seats, 3.7% |
Seats won |
12 |
11 |
Seat change |
9 |
22 |
Popular vote |
2,177,938 |
686,652 |
Percentage |
9.0% |
2.9% |
Swing |
2.3% |
0.8% |
|
![](../I/m/UK_General_Election%2C_1945.png)
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results. (Insert shows results in the Parliamentary County of London. Map excludes Northern Ireland) |
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The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, because of local wakes weeks.[1] The results were counted and declared on 26 July, to allow time to transport the votes of those serving overseas.
The result was an unexpected landslide victory for Clement Attlee's Labour Party, over Winston Churchill's Conservatives.[2] It was the first time the Conservatives had lost the popular vote since the 1906 election; they would not win it again until 1955. Labour won its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 12.0% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election.
Background
Held less than two months after VE Day, it was the first general election since 1935, as general elections had been suspended during the Second World War. Attlee, Leader of the Labour Party, refused Churchill's offer of continuing the Wartime Coalition until the Allied defeat of Japan. Parliament was dissolved on 15 June.
Campaign
The Labour Party ran on promises to create full employment, a tax-funded universal National Health Service, the embracing of Keynesian economic policies and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the campaign message 'Let us face the future.'
The Conservative manifesto included the granting of Dominion Status to India, mass house building, rent tribunals, an expansion of social security benefits and a "comprehensive health service".
Results
It resulted in the election defeat of the government led by Winston Churchill and the landslide victory of the Labour Party led by Clement Attlee, who won a majority of 145 seats.
Henry Pelling, noting that polls showed a steady Labour lead after 1942, explains the long-term forces that caused the Labour landslide. He points to the usual swing against the party in power; the Conservative loss of initiative; wide fears of a return to the high unemployment of the 1930s; the theme that socialist planning would be more efficient in operating the economy; and the mistaken belief that Churchill would continue as prime minister regardless of the result.[3]
The result of the election came as a major shock to the Conservatives,[4] given the heroic status of Winston Churchill, but reflected the voters' belief that the Labour Party were better able to rebuild the country following the war than the Conservatives.[5] Churchill and the Conservatives are also generally considered to have run a poor campaign in comparison to Labour; Churchill's statement that Attlee's programme would require "some form of a Gestapo" to implement is considered to have been particularly poorly judged.[6] Equally, though voters respected and liked Churchill's wartime record, they were more distrustful of the Conservative Party's domestic and foreign policy record in the late 1930s. Labour had also been given, during the war, the opportunity to display to the electorate their domestic competence in government under men such as Attlee, as Deputy Prime Minister, Herbert Morrison at the Home Office and Ernest Bevin at the Ministry of Labour.
This was the first election in which Labour gained a majority of seats, and also the first time it won a plurality of votes. The election was a disaster for the Liberal Party, as it lost all its urban seats, while their leader Archibald Sinclair lost his own rural Scottish seat. Baines says the defeat marked its transition from being a party of government to a party of the political fringe.[7]
Prominent figures who entered Parliament included Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Barbara Castle, Michael Foot and Hugh Gaitskell. Future Conservative Prime Minister Harold Macmillan temporarily left Parliament after this election.
Result: detail
↓
393 |
197 |
12 |
11 |
27 |
Labour |
Conservative |
Lib |
LN |
Oth |
UK general election 1945
|
Candidates |
Votes |
Party |
Leader |
Standing |
Elected |
Gained |
Unseated |
Net |
% of total |
% |
No. |
Net % |
|
Labour |
Clement Attlee |
603 |
393 |
242 |
3 |
+ 239 |
61.4 |
47.7 |
11,967,746 |
+ 11.7 |
|
Conservative |
Winston Churchill |
559 |
197 |
14 |
204 |
− 190 |
30.8 |
36.2 |
8,716,211 |
− 11.6 |
|
Liberal |
Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt |
306 |
12 |
5 |
14 |
− 9 |
1.9 |
9.0 |
2,177,938 |
+ 2.3 |
|
Liberal National |
Ernest Brown |
49 |
11 |
0 |
22 |
− 22 |
1.7 |
2.9 |
686,652 |
− 0.8 |
|
Independent |
N/A |
38 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
+ 6 |
1.3 |
0.6 |
133,191 |
+0.5 |
|
National |
N/A |
10 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
+ 1 |
0.3 |
0.5 |
130,513 |
+0.2 |
|
Common Wealth |
C. A. Smith |
23 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
+ 1 |
|
0.5 |
110,634 |
N/A |
|
Communist |
Harry Pollitt |
21 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
+ 1 |
|
0.4 |
97,945 |
+0.3 |
|
Nationalist |
James McSparran |
3 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.4 |
92,819 |
+0.2 |
|
National Independent |
N/A |
13 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
0.3 |
65,171 |
N/A |
|
Independent Labour |
N/A |
7 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.3 |
63,135 |
+0.2 |
|
Independent Conservative |
N/A |
6 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
+ 2 |
|
0.2 |
57,823 |
+0.1 |
|
Ind. Labour Party |
Bob Edwards |
5 |
3 |
0 |
1 |
− 1 |
|
0.2 |
46,769 |
-0.5 |
|
Independent Progressive |
N/A |
7 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
+ 1 |
|
0.1 |
45,967 |
+0.1 |
|
Independent Liberal |
N/A |
3 |
2 |
2 |
0 |
+ 2 |
|
0.1 |
30,450 |
+0.1 |
|
SNP |
Douglas Young |
8 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.1 |
26,707 |
-0.1 |
|
Plaid Cymru |
Abi Williams |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
16,017 |
— |
|
Commonwealth Labour |
Harry Midgley |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
14,096 |
N/A |
|
Independent Nationalist |
N/A |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
5,430 |
N/A |
|
Liverpool Protestant |
H. D. Longbottom |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
2,601 |
— |
|
Christian Pacifist |
N/A |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
2,381 |
N/A |
|
Democratic |
Norman Leith-Hay-Clark |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
1,809 |
N/A |
|
Agriculturist |
N/A |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
1,068 |
— |
|
Socialist (GB) |
None |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
472 |
N/A |
|
United Socialist |
Guy Aldred |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
0.0 |
300 |
N/A |
Total votes cast: 24,073,025. Turnout 72.8%.[8] All parties shown. Conservative total includes Ulster Unionists. The 8 seats won by National Labour in 1935 were not defended.
Votes summary
Popular vote |
|
|
|
|
|
Labour |
|
47.7% |
Conservative |
|
36.2% |
Liberal |
|
9.0% |
Liberal National |
|
2.9% |
Others |
|
4.2% |
Seats summary
Parliamentary seats |
|
|
|
|
|
Labour |
|
61.4% |
Conservative |
|
30.8% |
Liberal |
|
1.9% |
Liberal National |
|
1.2% |
Others |
|
4.7% |
MPs who lost their seats
Party |
Name |
Constituency |
Office held whilst in power |
Year elected |
Defeated by |
Party |
|
Conservative Party |
Major Henry Adam Procter |
Accrington |
|
1931 |
Captain Walter Scott-Elliot |
|
Labour Party |
Henry Longhurst |
Acton |
|
1943 |
Joseph Sparks |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Jonah Walker-Smith |
Barrow and Furness |
|
1931 |
Walter Monslow |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Richard Wells, 1st Baronet |
Bedford |
|
1922 |
Thomas Skeffington-Lodge |
|
Labour Party |
John McEwen |
Berwick and Haddington |
|
1931 |
John Robertson |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Oliver Simmonds |
Birmingham Duddeston |
|
1931 |
Edith Wills |
|
Labour Party |
Major Basil Arthur John Peto |
Birmingham King's Norton |
|
1941 |
Raymond Blackburn |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Geoffrey Lloyd |
Birmingham Ladywood |
Minister for Information |
1931 |
Victor Yates |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Leo Amery |
Birmingham Sparkbrook |
Secretary of State for India and Burma |
1911 |
Percy Shurmer |
|
Labour Party |
Walter Higgs |
Birmingham West |
|
1937 |
Charles Simmons |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Edward William Salt |
Birmingham Yardley |
|
1931 |
Wesley Perrins |
|
Labour Party |
Major Sir Cyril Entwistle |
Bolton |
|
1931 |
John Lewis |
|
Labour Party |
Eric Errington |
Bootle |
|
1935 |
John Kinley |
|
Labour Party |
Violet Bathurst, Lady Apsley |
Bristol Central |
|
1943 |
Stan Awbery |
|
Labour Party |
The Honourable Major Lionel Berry |
Buckingham |
|
1943 |
Aidan Crawley |
|
Labour Party |
Captain Nigel Colman |
Brixton |
|
1927 |
Lieutenant Colonel Marcus Lipton |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel The Honourable John Gretton |
Burton |
|
1943 |
Arthur William Lyne |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel Albert Braithwaite |
Buckrose |
|
1926 |
George Wadsworth |
|
Liberal Party |
The Honourable Oscar Guest |
Cambridge |
|
1934 |
Tudor Watkins |
|
Labour Party |
Richard Tufnell |
Camberwell North West (contested Breconshire and Radnorshire) |
|
1935 |
Arthur Symonds |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Percy James Grigg |
Cardiff East |
Secretary of State for War |
1942 |
Hilary Marquand |
|
Labour Party |
Arthur Evans |
Cardiff South |
|
1931 |
James Callaghan |
|
Labour Party |
Major-General Sir Edward Spears |
Carlisle |
|
1931 |
Edgar Grierson |
|
Labour Party |
Captain Leonard Plugge |
Chatham |
|
1935 |
Arthur Bottomley |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant Commander Robert Tatton Bower |
Cleveland |
|
1931 |
George Willey |
|
Labour Party |
Oswald Lewis |
Colchester |
|
1929 |
Captain George Delacourt-Smith |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Donald Somervell |
Crewe |
Home Secretary |
1931 |
Scholefield Allen |
|
Labour Party |
Herbert Williams |
Croydon South |
|
1932 |
Lieutenant Colonel David Rees-Williams |
|
Labour Party |
Charles Peat |
Darlington |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Pensions |
1931 |
David Hardman |
|
Labour Party |
Paul Emrys-Evans |
South Derbyshire |
Under-Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs |
1931 |
Arthur Champion |
|
Labour Party |
Bracewell Smith |
Dulwich |
|
1932 |
Major Wilfrid Vernon |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Florence Horsbrugh |
Dundee |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Health |
1931 |
Thomas Fotheringham-Cook |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant Colonel Sir John Mayhew |
East Ham North |
|
1931 |
Percy Daines |
|
Labour Party |
Robert Cary |
Eccles |
Lord of the Treasury |
1935 |
William Proctor |
|
Labour Party |
Frank Watt |
Edinburgh Central |
|
1941 |
Andrew Gilzean |
|
Labour Party |
Alexander Erskine-Hill |
Edinburgh North |
|
1935 |
George Willis |
|
Labour Party |
Thomas Levy |
Elland |
|
1931 |
Frederick Arthur Cobb |
|
Labour Party |
Bartle Brennen Bull |
Enfield |
|
1935 |
Enfield Davies |
|
Labour Party |
Roy Wise |
Smethwick (contested Epping) |
|
1931 |
Leah Manning |
|
Labour Party |
The Honourable William Astor |
Fulham East |
|
1931 |
Captain Michael Stewart |
|
Labour Party |
Walter Elliot |
Glasgow Kelvingrove |
|
1924 |
John Lloyd-Williams |
|
Labour Party |
Leslie Boyce |
Gloucester |
|
1929 |
Moss Turner-Samuels |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Irving Albery |
Gravesend |
|
1924 |
Garry Allighan |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Walter Womersley, 1st Baronet |
Great Grimsby |
Minister of Pensions |
1924 |
The Honourable Major Kenneth Younger |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Austin Hudson, 1st Baronet |
Hackney North |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Fuel, Light and Power |
1924 |
Henry Edwin Goodrich |
|
Labour Party |
Gilbert Gledhill |
Halifax |
|
1931 |
Dryden Brook |
|
Labour Party |
Ronald Tree |
Harborough |
|
1933 |
Humphrey Attewell |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel Thomas George Greenwell |
The Hartlepools |
|
1943 |
David Thomas Jones |
|
Labour Party |
James Wootton-Davies |
Heywood and Radcliffe |
|
1940 |
John Edmondson Whittaker |
|
Labour Party |
The Honourable Seymour Berry |
Hitchin |
|
1941 |
Philip Asterley Jones |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel Sir Lambert Ward, 1st Baronet |
Hull North West |
|
1918 |
Kim Mackay |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Richard Law |
Hull South West |
Minister of Education |
1931 |
Sydney Smith |
|
Labour Party |
Major Geoffrey Hutchinson |
Ilford (contested Ilford North) |
|
1937 |
Mabel Ridealgh |
|
Labour Party |
Thelma Cazalet-Keir |
Islington East |
|
1931 |
Eric Fletcher |
|
Labour Party |
James Duncan |
Kensington North |
|
1931 |
George Rogers |
|
Labour Party |
Major John Profumo, 5th Baron Profumo |
Kettering |
Baby of the House |
1940 |
Major Gilbert Mitchinson |
|
Labour Party |
Sir John Wardlaw-Milne |
Kidderminster |
|
1922 |
Louis Tolley |
|
Labour Party |
Alec Douglas-Home |
Lanark |
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs |
1931 |
Tom Steele |
|
Labour Party |
Major William Anstruther-Gray |
North Lanarkshire |
Assistant Postmaster-General |
1931 |
Margaret Herbison |
|
Labour Party |
John Craik-Henderson |
Leeds North East |
|
1940 |
Alice Bacon |
|
Labour Party |
Vyvyan Adams |
Leeds West |
|
1931 |
Thomas William Stamford |
|
Labour Party |
Major Abraham Montagu Lyons |
Leicester East |
|
1931 |
Terence Donovan |
|
Labour Party |
Captain Charles Waterhouse |
Leicester South |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade |
1924 |
Herbert Bowden |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant Colonel Sir Assheton Pownall |
Lewisham East |
|
1918 |
Herbert Morrison |
|
Labour Party |
Henry Brooke |
Lewisham West |
|
1938 |
Arthur Skeffington |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Walter Liddall |
Lincoln |
|
1931 |
George Deer |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel Sir John Joseph Shute |
Liverpool Exchange |
|
1933 |
Bessie Braddock |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Edmund Brocklebank |
Liverpool Fairfield |
|
1931 |
Arthur Moody |
|
Labour Party |
Reginald Purbrick |
Liverpool Walton |
|
1929 |
James Haworth |
|
Labour Party |
Cyril Lakin |
Llandaff and Barry |
|
1942 |
Lynn Ungoed-Thomas |
|
Labour Party |
Major Lawrence Kimball |
Loughborough |
|
1935 |
Mont Follick |
|
Labour Party |
Pierse Loftus |
Lowestoft |
|
1934 |
Edward Evans |
|
Labour Party |
John Lees-Jones |
Manchester Blackley |
|
1931 |
John Diamond |
|
Labour Party |
Thomas Hewlett |
Manchester Exchange |
|
1940 |
Harold Lever |
|
Labour Party |
William Duckworth |
Manchester Moss Side |
|
1935 |
William Griffiths |
|
Labour Party |
Frederick Cundiff |
Manchester Rusholme |
|
1944 |
Lester Hutchinson |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Malcolm Robertson |
Mitcham |
|
1940 |
Tom Braddock |
|
Labour Party |
Alfred Denville |
Newcastle upon Tyne Central |
|
1931 |
Lyall Wilkes |
|
Labour Party |
William Nunn |
Newcastle upon Tyne West |
|
1940 |
Ernest Popplewell |
|
Labour Party |
Ronald Bell |
Newport |
|
1945 |
Peter Freeman |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Thomas Cook |
North Norfolk |
|
1931 |
Edwin Gooch |
|
Labour Party |
Somerset de Chair |
South West Norfolk |
|
1935 |
Sidney Dye |
|
Labour Party |
Spencer Summers |
Northampton |
Secretary for Overseas Trade |
1940 |
Reginald Paget |
|
Labour Party |
Henry Strauss |
Norwich |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning |
1935 |
Lucy Noel-Buxton, Baroness Noel-Buxton |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Sandys |
Norwood |
First Commissioner of Works |
1935 |
Ronald Chamberlain |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Air Vice Marshal Sir Frederick Sykes |
Nottingham Central |
|
1940 |
Geoffrey de Freitas |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel Louis Gluckstein |
Nottingham East |
|
1931 |
James Harrison |
|
Labour Party |
Hamilton Kerr |
Oldham |
|
1931 |
Frank Fairhurst |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Brendan Bracken |
Paddington North |
First Lord of the Admiralty |
1929 |
Lieutenant General Sir Noel Mason-MacFarlane |
|
Labour Party |
Major Maurice Petherick |
Penryn and Falmouth |
Financial Secretary to the War Office |
1931 |
Lieutenant Colonel Evelyn King |
|
Labour Party |
John Hely-Hutchinson, Viscount Suirdale |
Peterborough |
|
1943 |
Stanley Tiffany |
|
Labour Party |
Major Ralph Beaumont |
Portsmouth Central |
|
1931 |
Julian Snow |
|
Labour Party |
Major Randolph Churchill |
Preston |
|
1940 |
Squadron Leader Samuel Segal |
|
Labour Party |
Captain Edward Cobb |
Preston (contested Eton and Slough) |
|
1936 |
Benn Levy |
|
Labour Party |
Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn |
West Renfrewshire |
|
1931 |
Thomas Scollan |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Ronald Cross, 1st Baronet |
Rossendale |
High Commissioner to Australia |
1931 |
George Henry Walker |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Ralph Assheton |
Rushcliffe |
Chairman of the Conservative Party |
1934 |
Florence Paton |
|
Labour Party |
Allen Chapman |
Rutherglen |
Under-Secretary of State for Scotland |
1935 |
Gilbert McAllister |
|
Labour Party |
The Honourable John Grimston |
St Albans |
|
1943 |
Cyril Dumpleton |
|
Labour Party |
Robert Grant-Ferris |
St Pancras North |
|
1937 |
George House |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Alfred Beit, 2nd Baronet |
St Pancras South East |
|
1931 |
Santo Jeger |
|
Labour Party |
Sir James Frederick Emery |
Salford West |
|
1935 |
Charles Royle |
|
Labour Party |
William Craven-Ellis |
Southampton |
|
1931 |
Ralph Morley |
|
Labour Party |
Malcolm McCorquodale |
Sowerby |
|
1931 |
John Belcher |
|
Labour Party |
Peter Thorneycroft |
Stafford |
|
1938 |
Stephen Swingler |
|
Labour Party |
Horace Trevor-Cox |
Stalybridge and Hyde |
|
1937 |
Gordon Lang |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Harold Macmillan |
Stockton-on-Tees |
Secretary of State for Air |
1931 |
Captain George Chetwynd |
|
Labour Party |
Sir George Jones |
Stoke Newington |
|
1924 |
David Weitzman |
|
Labour Party |
Robert Morgan |
Stourbridge |
|
1931 |
Arthur Moyle |
|
Labour Party |
Flight Lieutenant Ralph Etherton |
Stretford |
|
1939 |
Herschel Austin |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Walter Perkins |
Stroud |
|
1931 |
Ben Parkin |
|
Labour Party |
Henry Burton |
Sudbury |
|
1924 |
Roland Hamilton |
|
Labour Party |
Samuel Storey |
Sunderland |
|
1931 |
Richard Ewart |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant Colonel Edward Wickham |
Taunton |
|
1935 |
Victor Collins |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Derrick Gunston, 1st Baronet |
Thornbury |
|
1924 |
Joseph Alpass |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Alexander Russell |
Tynemouth |
|
1922 |
Grace Colman |
|
Labour Party |
Colonel The Right Honourable John Jestyn Llewellin |
Uxbridge |
Minister of Food |
1929 |
Flight Lieutenant Frank Beswick |
|
Labour Party |
Irene Ward |
Wallsend |
|
1931 |
John McKay |
|
Labour Party |
Donald Scott |
Wansbeck |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries |
1940 |
Alfred Robens |
|
Labour Party |
Noel Goldie |
Warrington |
|
1931 |
Edward Porter |
|
Labour Party |
Air Commodore William Helmore |
Watford |
|
1943 |
John Freeman |
|
Labour Party |
Wing Commander Sir Archibald James |
Welingborough |
|
1931 |
George Lindgren |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Richard Pilkington |
Widnes |
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty |
1935 |
Maurice Orbach |
|
Labour Party |
Samuel Hammersley |
Willesden East |
|
1938 |
Commander Christopher Nyholm Shawcross |
|
Labour Party |
Gerald Parmer |
Winchester |
|
1935 |
George Jeger |
|
Labour Party |
William Ernest Gibbons |
Bilston |
|
1944 |
Will Nally |
|
Labour Party |
Francis Beech |
Woolwich West |
|
1943 |
Henry Berry |
|
Labour Party |
Arthur Colegate |
The Wrekin |
|
1941 |
Ivor Owen Thomas |
|
Labour Party |
Charles Wood, Lord Irwin |
City of York |
|
1937 |
John Corlett |
|
Labour Party |
|
National Liberal Party |
Percy Jewson |
Great Yarmouth |
|
1941 |
Ernest Kinghorn |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable William Mabane |
Huddersfield |
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs |
1931 |
Joseph Mallalieu |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Ernest Brown |
Leith |
Leader of the Liberal National Party & Minister of Aircraft Production |
1927 |
James Hoy |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Shakespeare, 1st Baronet |
Norwich |
|
1929 |
James Paton |
|
Labour Party |
Major John Samuel Dodd |
Oldham |
|
1935 |
Leslie Hale |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Leslie Hore-Belisha |
Plymouth Devonport |
|
1923 |
Michael Foot |
|
Labour Party |
William Stanley Russell Thomas |
Southampton |
|
1940 |
Tommy Lewis |
|
Labour Party |
William Woolley |
Spen Valley |
|
1940 |
Granville Maynard Sharp |
|
Labour Party |
Stephen Furness |
Sunderland |
|
1935 |
Frederick Willey |
|
Labour Party |
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir George Schuster |
Walsall |
|
1938 |
Major William Wells |
|
Labour Party |
|
Liberal Party |
Sir William Beveridge |
Berwick-upon-Tweed |
|
1944 |
Robert Thorp |
|
Conservative Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Percy Harris, 1st Baronet |
Bethnal Green South West |
Liberal Chief Whip |
1922 |
Percy Holman |
|
Labour Party |
The Right Honourable Sir Archibald Sinclair, 4th Baronet |
Caithness and Sutherland |
Leader of the Liberal Party & Secretary of State for Air |
1922 |
Eric Gandar Dower |
|
Conservative Party |
The Right Honourable Henry Graham White |
Birkenhead East |
|
1929 |
Frank Soskice |
|
Labour Party |
Seaborne Davies |
Caernarfon |
|
1945 |
Lieutenant Colonel David Price-White |
|
Conservative Party |
Lieutenant Colonel Goronwy Owen |
Caernarvonshire |
|
1923 |
Goronwy Roberts |
|
Labour Party |
Dingle Foot |
Dundee |
Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Economic Warfare |
1931 |
Squadron Leader John Strachey |
|
Labour Party |
Thomas Magnay |
Gateshead |
|
1931 |
Konni Zilliacus |
|
Labour Party |
James Armand de Rothschild |
Isle of Ely |
|
1929 |
Major Harry Legge-Bourke |
|
Conservative Party |
Colonel The Honourable Henry Guest |
Plymouth Drake |
|
1937 |
Hubert Medland |
|
Labour Party |
Sir Geoffrey Mander |
Wolverhampton East |
|
1929 |
Captain John Baird |
|
Labour Party |
|
Labour Party |
Moelwyn Hughes |
Carmarthen |
|
1941 |
Rhys Hopkin Morris |
|
Liberal Party |
John Eric Loverseed |
Eddisbury |
|
1943 |
Sir John Barlow, 2nd Baronet |
|
National Liberal Party |
Daniel Frankel |
Mile End |
|
1935 |
Phil Piratin |
|
Communist Party of Great Britain |
|
National Labour |
Harold Nicolson |
Leicester West |
|
1935 |
Barnett Janner |
|
Labour Party |
Frank Markham |
Nottingham South |
|
1935 |
Norman Smith |
|
Labour Party |
Commander Stephen King-Hall |
Ormskirk |
|
1939 |
Harold Wilson |
|
Labour Party |
|
Independent Labour |
Andrew MacLaren |
Burslem |
|
1935 |
Albert Edward Davies |
|
Labour Party |
George Leonard Reakes |
Wallasey |
|
1942 |
Ernest Marples |
|
Conservative Party |
|
Independent Conservative |
Captain Alec Cunningham-Reid |
St Marylebone |
|
1932 |
Wavell Wakefield |
|
Conservative Party |
|
Scottish National Party |
Robert McIntyre |
Motherwell |
|
1945 |
Alexander Anderson |
|
Labour Party |
Seats changing hands between parties
- This differs from the above list in including seats where the incumbent was standing down and therefore there was no possibility of any one person being defeated. The aim is to provide a comparison with the previous election. All comparisons are with the 1935 election.
- In some cases the change is due to the MP defecting to the gaining party. Such circumstances are marked with a *.
- In other circumstances the change is due to the seat having been won by the gaining party in a by-election in the intervening years, and then retained in 1945. Such circumstances are marked with a †.
Gain |
Gained from |
Number |
Seats |
Communist |
Labour |
1 |
Mile End |
Labour |
Independent Labour Party |
1 |
Gorbals* |
National Labour |
8 |
Kilmarnock, Derby (one of two)†, Ormskirk, Leicester West, Nottingham South, Lichfield†, Leeds Central, Cardiff C |
Liberal |
9 |
Dundee (one of two), Paisley, Birkenhead East, Bristol North6, Bethnal Green South-West, Wolverhampton East, Middlesbrough West, Bradford South, Carnarvonshire |
Independent |
1 |
Mossley |
National |
1 |
Brecon and Radnor† |
Conservative |
182 |
Dundee (one of two), Kelvingrove, Dunbartonshire†, Lanark, Lanarkshire N, Renfrewshire W, Rutherglen, Edinburgh North, Edinburgh Central, Midlothian S & Peebles, Berwick & Haddington, Bedford, Reading, Buckingham, Wycombe, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Birkenhead West, Crewe, Stalybridge and Hyde, Penryn and Falmouth, Carlisle, Derby (one of two), Belper, Derbyshire South, Derbyshire West2, Drake, Sutton, Darlington, Stockton-on-Tees, Sunderland (one of two), The Hartlepools, Leyton East, Colchester, East Ham N, Epping, Essex SE, Ilford N (from Ilford), Maldon5, Walthamstow E, Bristol Central, Gloucester, Stroud, Thornbury, Portsmouth Central, Portsmouth North, Southampton (one of two), Winchester, Dudley, Kidderminster, Stourbridge, Hitchin, St Albans, Watford, Hull North West, Hull South West, Chatham, Chislehurst, Dartford†, Dover, Faversham, Gillingham, Gravesend, Accrington, Barrow-in-Furness, Blackburn (both seats), Chorley, Clitheroe, Preston (both seats), Rossendale, Bolton (both seats), Eccles, Heywood and Radcliffe, Blackley, Manchester Exchange, Hulme, Moss Side, Rusholme, Oldham (one of two), Salford North, Salford South, Salford West, Stretford, Bootle, Edge Hill, Liverpool Exchange, Fairfield, Kirkdale, Walton, Warrington, Widnes, Harborough, Leicester East, Leicester South, Loughborough, Grimsby, Lincoln, Balham and Tooting, Battersea South, Brixton, Camberwell North-West, Clapham, Dulwich, Fulham East, Greenwich, Hackney North, Hammersmith South, Islington East, Kensington North, Lewisham East, Lewisham West, Norwood, Paddington North, Fulham West†, Islington North†, Kennington†, Peckham†, St Pancras North, St Pancras South East, St Pancras South West, Stoke Newington, Wandsworth Central†, Woolwich West, King's Lynn, Norfolk North, Norfolk South, Norfolk South West, Norwich (one of two), Kettering, Northampton, Peterborough, Wellingborough, Newcastle upon Tyne Central, Newcastle upon Tyne West, Tynemouth, Wallsend, Wansbeck, Nottingham Central, Nottingham East, Rushcliffe, The Wrekin, Frome, Taunton, Burton, Smethwick, Stafford, Bilston, Wolverhampton West, Ipswich†, Lowestoft, Sudbury, Croydon South, Mitcham, Wimbledon, Duddeston, Coventry East (replaced Coventry), Aston, Deritend, Erdington, King's Norton, Ladywood, Yardley, Sparkbrook, Birmingham West, Swindon, York, Cleveland, Leeds North East, Sheffield Central, Bradford North, Sowerby, Elland, Leeds West, Halifax, Bradford East, Newport, Llandaff & Barry, Cardiff E8, Cardiff S |
National Liberal |
17 |
Greenock†, Leith, Luton, Devonport4, Gateshead, Sunderland (one of two), Southampton (one of two), Oldham (one of two), Bosworth, Southwark North†, Great Yarmouth, Norwich (one of two), Newcastle upon Tyne East, Walsall, Huddersfield, Spen Valley, Swansea West |
NEW SEAT |
10 |
Eton and Slough, Ilford South, Barking, Dagenham, Hornchurch, Thurrock, Barnet, Bexley, Acock's Green, Coventry West |
Independent Labour |
Labour |
1 |
Hammersmith North* |
Ulster Unionist |
1 |
Belfast West |
Common Wealth |
Conservative |
1 |
Chelmsford* |
Liberal |
Labour |
1 |
Carmarthen |
Conservative |
2 |
Dorset North, Buckrose |
National Liberal |
2 |
Eye*, Montgomeryshire* |
Independent Progressive |
Conservative |
1 |
Bridgwater† |
Independent |
Conservative |
3 |
Grantham†, City of London (one of two)†, Rugby† |
National Independent |
Conservative |
1 |
Cheltenham7 |
Conservative |
Liberal |
5 |
Caithness and Sutherland, Isle of Ely, Barnstaple3, Berwick-upon-Tweed, Carnarvon |
Speaker |
1 |
Daventry† |
NEW SEAT |
8 |
Bucklow, Woodford, Orpington, Blackpool North, Carshalton, Sutton and Cheam, Worthing, Solihull |
Independent Conservative |
Conservative |
1 |
Galloway* |
Independent Liberal |
National Liberal |
1 |
Ross and Cromarty1 |
Independent Unionist |
Ulster Unionist |
1 |
Down (one of two)* |
Speaker |
Conservative |
1 |
Hexham* |
1seat had been won by National Labour in a by-election
2seat had been won by Independent Labour candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a Labour candidate
3candidate had defected to the Common Wealth party
4candidate had moved to 'National' label
5seat had been won by Independent candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a Labour candidate
6candidate had defected to National Liberal party
7seat had been won by Independent Conservative candidate in a by-election, who fought and won the 1945 election as a National Independent candidate
8seat had been won by Independent candidate in a by-election
Reasons for Labour victory
With World War II coming to an end in Europe, the Labour Party decided to pull out of the wartime national coalition government, precipitating an election which took place in July 1945. King George VI dissolved Parliament, which had been sitting for ten years without an election. What followed was perhaps one of the greatest swings of public confidence of the twentieth century. In May 1945, the month in which the War in Europe ended, Churchill's approval ratings stood at 83%, although the Labour Party held an 18% lead as of February 1945.[9] Labour won overwhelming support while 'Churchill... was both surprised and stunned' by the crushing defeat suffered by the Conservatives.
The greatest factor in Labour's dramatic win appeared to be the policy of social reform. In one opinion poll, 41% of respondents considered housing to be the most important issue that faced the country, 15% stated the Labour policy of full employment, 7% mentioned social security, 6% nationalisation and just 5% international security, which was emphasised by the Conservatives. The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, proposed the creation of a Welfare State. It called for a dramatic turn in British social policy, with provision for nationalised healthcare, expansion of state-funded education, National Insurance and a new housing policy. The report was extremely popular, and copies of its findings were widely purchased, turning it into a best-seller. The Labour Party adopted the report eagerly.[4] The Conservatives accepted many of the principles of the report (Churchill did not regard the reforms as socialist), but claimed that they weren't affordable.[10] Labour offered a new comprehensive welfare policy, reflecting a consensus that social changes were needed.[5] The Conservatives were not willing to make the same concessions that Labour proposed, and hence appeared out of step with public opinion.
As Churchill's personal popularity remained high, the Conservatives were confident of victory and based much of their election campaign on this, rather than proposing new programmes. However, people distinguished between Churchill and his party—a contrast which Labour repeatedly emphasised throughout the campaign. Voters also harboured doubts over Churchill's ability to lead the country on the domestic front.[5]
In addition to the poor Conservative general election strategy, Churchill went so far as to accuse Attlee of seeking to behave as a dictator, in spite of Attlee's service as part of Churchill's war cabinet. In the most famous incident of the campaign, Churchill's first election broadcast on 4 June backfired dramatically and memorably. Denouncing his former coalition partners, he declared that Labour "would have to fall back on some form of a Gestapo" to impose socialism on Britain. Attlee responded the next night by ironically thanking the Prime Minister for demonstrating to people the difference between Churchill the great wartime leader and Churchill the peacetime politician, and argued the case for public control of industry.
Another blow to the Conservative campaign was the memory of the 1930s policy of appeasement, which had been conducted by Churchill's Conservative predecessors, Neville Chamberlain and Stanley Baldwin, and was at this stage widely discredited for allowing Adolf Hitler's Germany to become too powerful.[5] Labour had strongly advocated appeasement until 1938. The inter-war period had been dominated by Conservatives. With the exception of two brief minority Labour governments in 1924 and 1929–1931, the Conservatives had been in power for its entirety. As a result, the Conservatives were generally blamed for the era's mistakes, not merely for appeasement but for the inflation and unemployment of the Great Depression.[5] Many voters felt that while the war of 1914-1918 had been won, the peace that followed had been lost. Labour played to the concept of "winning the peace" that would follow the Second World War.
Possibly for this reason, there was especially strong support for Labour in the armed services, who feared the unemployment and homelessness to which the soldiers of the First World War had returned. It has been claimed that the pro left-wing bias of teachers in the armed services was a contributing factor, but this argument has generally not carried much weight, and the failure of the Conservative governments in the 1920s to deliver a "land fit for heroes" was likely more important.[5] The role of propaganda films produced during the war, which were shown to both military and civilian audiences, is also seen as a contributory factor due to their general optimism about the future, which meshed with the Labour Party's campaigning in 1945 better than with that of the Conservatives.[11] Writer and soldier Anthony Burgess remarked that Churchill - who often wore a colonel's uniform at this time - himself was not nearly as popular with soldiers at the front as with officers and civilians: he noted that Churchill often smoked cigars in front of soldiers who had not had a decent cigarette in days.[12]
The differing strategies of the two parties during wartime also gave Labour an advantage. Labour continued to attack pre-war Conservative governments for their inactivity in tackling Hitler, reviving the economy, and re-arming Britain,[13] while Churchill was less interested in furthering his party, much to the chagrin of many of its members and MPs.[9]
See also
References
Bibliography
- Addison, Paul. The road to 1945: British politics and the Second World War (London: Cape, 1975)
- Baines, Malcolm. "The liberal party and 1945 general election." Contemporary Record (1995) 9(1) pp: 48-61.
- Brooke, Stephen. Labour's war: the Labour party during the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 1992)
- Burgess, Simon. "1945 Observed - A History of the Histories," Contemporary Record (1991) 5(1) pp 155–170; historiography
- F. W. S. Craig, British Electoral Facts: 1832-1987
- Fielding, Steven. "What did 'the people' want?: the meaning of the 1945 general election." Historical Journal (1992) 35(3) pp: 623-639. JSTOR: 2639633
- Fry, Geoffrey K. "A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945," History (1991) 76#246 pp 43–55.
- Gilbert, Bentley B. "Third Parties and Voters' Decisions: The Liberals and the General Election of 1945." Journal of British Studies (1972) 11(2) pp: 131-141.
- Kandiah, Michael David. "The conservative party and the 1945 general election." (1995): 22-47.
- Lynch, Michael (2008). "1. The Labour Party in Power 1945-51". Britain 1945-2007. Access to History. Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-96595-9. .
- McCallum, R.B. and Alison Readman. The British general election of 1945 (1947) the standard scholarly study
- McCulloch, Gary. "Labour, the Left, and the British General Election of 1945." Journal of British Studies (1985) 24(4) pp: 465-489. JSTOR: 175476
- Nicholas, H. (1951). The British general election of 1950. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-77865-0.
- Pelling, Henry. "The 1945 general election reconsidered." Historical Journal (1980) 23(2) pp: 399-414. JSTOR: 2638675
- Toye, Richard. "Winston Churchill's "Crazy Broadcast": Party, Nation, and the 1945 Gestapo Speech," Journal of British Studies (2010) 49(3) pp. 655–680 JSTOR: 23265382; online
External links
Manifestos