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United Kingdom general elections (elections for the House of Commons) have occurred in the United Kingdom since the first in 1802. The members of the 1801–1802 Parliament had been elected to the former Parliament of Great Britain and Parliament of Ireland, before being co-opted to serve in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom, so that Parliament is not included in the table below. There have been 58 general elections held in the UK up to and including the 2024 general election.

Election results

In 1801, the right to vote in the United Kingdom was severely restricted. Universal suffrage, on an equal basis for men and women over the age of 21, was established in 1928. Before 1918, general elections did not occur on a single day and polling was spread over several weeks.

The majority figure given is for the difference between the number of MPs elected at the general election from the party (or parties) of the government, as opposed to all other parties (some of which may have been giving some support to the government, but were not participating in a coalition). The Speaker is excluded from the calculation. A negative majority means that there was a hung parliament (or minority government) following that election. For example, at the 1929 general election, Labour was 42 seats short of forming a majority, and so its majority is listed as −42. If the party in office changed the figure is re-calculated, but no allowance is made for changes after the general election.

No attempt is made to define a majority before 1832, when the Reform Act disenfranchised the rotten boroughs; before then the Tory party had an undemocratically entrenched dominance. Particularly in the early part of the period, the complexity of factional alignments, with both the Whig and Tory traditions tending to have some members in government and others in opposition factions simultaneously, make it impossible to produce an objective majority figure. The figures between 1832 and about 1859 are approximate due to problems of defining what was a party in government, as the source provides figures for all Liberals rather than just the Whig component in what developed into the Liberal Party. The Whig and Peelite Prime Ministers in the table below are regarded as having the support of all Liberals.

List of elections

19th century

1. ^ Died in office.
2. Was defeated on a motion to examine the accounts of the Civil List on 15 November 1830 and resigned the following day.
3. Was dismissed by William IV on 14 November 1834.
4. Peel was defeated on a report about the Irish Church on 7 April 1835 and resigned the following day.
5. Defeated on a motion of no confidence on 4 June 1841 and advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament, which she did on 23 June.
6. Ministry met the House of Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 27 August 1841 and resigned on 30 August 1841.
7. Was defeated on an Irish Coercion Bill on 25 June 1846 and resigned on 29 June 1846.
8. Was defeated on a militia bill on 20 February 1852 and resigned on 23 February.
9. Was defeated on the Budget on 16 December 1852 and resigned on 19 December 1852.
10. Was defeated on a vote in favour of a select committee to enquire into alleged mismanagement during the Crimean War on 29 January 1855 and resigned the next day.
11. Was defeated on a Bill, which made it a felony to plot in Britain to murder someone abroad, on 19 February 1858 and resigned on the same day.
12. Ministry met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 10 June 1859 and resigned on 11 June 1859.
13. Was defeated on Parliamentary reform proposals on 18 June 1866 and resigned on 26 June 1866.
14. Hung parliament.
15. ^ Immediately advised the dissolution of Parliament upon becoming Prime Minister.
16. ^ Known as a Khaki election which is an election heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment.

20th century

1. ^ Hung parliament.
2. Coalition Coupon. The Conservative party (led by Bonar Law) won the most votes and seats, but David Lloyd George became Prime Minister as leader of the Liberal party as part of a major cross-party deal.
3. Bonar Law immediately advised the dissolution of Parliament upon becoming Prime Minister on 23 October 1922.
4. Known as the 'flapper' election because it was the first election in which women aged 21–29 had the right to vote.
5. In the 1951 general election, although the Labour Party won a plurality of votes (48.8%), it was the Conservative Party with 48% of the voteshare that won a 17-seat majority and would go on to form the next government.

21st century

1. Brown succeeded Blair as leader of the Labour party on 24 June 2007, after being unopposed in a party leadership election. He officially became Prime Minister 3 days later.
2. Hung parliament. Formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg (who became Deputy Prime Minister).
3. Includes the vote share of both the Conservatives (36.1%) and Liberal Democrats (23%).
4. Combined coalition total.
5. May succeeded Cameron as Prime Minister on 13 July 2016, following a short party leadership election.
6. Hung parliament.
7. Confidence and supply agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party.
8. Johnson succeeded May as Prime Minister on 24 July 2019 – two days after being elected leader of the Conservative Party in a party leadership election.
9. Truss succeeded Johnson as Prime Minister on 6 September 2022 – the day after being elected leader of the Conservative Party in the July–September party leadership election.
10. Sunak succeeded Truss as Prime Minister on 25 October 2022 – the day after being elected (without opposition) leader of the Conservative Party in the October party leadership election.

See also

• List of Conservative Party (UK) general election manifestos
• List of Labour Party (UK) general election manifestos
• List of Liberal Party and Liberal Democrats (UK) general election manifestos
• Referendums in the United Kingdom

Notes

1. Including Tory (1832), Conservative (from 1835), Liberal Conservative (1847–1859), Liberal Unionist (1886–1910), National parties (1931–1945).
2. Including Whig (to mid-19th century), Liberal (mid-19th century to 1979), National Liberal (1922), Independent Liberal (1931), SDP-Liberal Alliance (1983–1987) and Liberal Democrat (from 1992).

References

1. Table 2.01 "Summary Results of General Elections 1832–2005 (UK)", in Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, British electoral facts, 1832–2006 (7th ed.), 2007, ISBN 978-0-7546-2712-8, p. 59.
2. "Election 2010 Results", BBC News.
3. "Election 2015 Results", BBC News.
4. "COMMITTEE "UPON THE CIVIL LIST". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 15 November 1830.
5. "parliament.uk" (PDF). parliament.uk. commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
6. "PROROGATION". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 15 August 1834.
7. "parliament.uk" (PDF). parliament.uk. commonslibrary.parliament.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2023.
8. "CHURCH OF IRELAND". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 7 April 1835.
9. "CONFIDENCE IN THE MINISTRY— ADJOURNED DEBATE (FIFTH DAY)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 4 June 1841.
10. "ADDRESS IN ANSWER TO THE SPEECH— ADJOURNED DEBATE, FOURTH NIGHT". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 27 August 1841.
11. "PROTECTION OF LIFE (IRELAND) BILL—ADJOURNED DEBATE—(SIXTH NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 25 June 1846.
12. "LOCAL MILITIA". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 20 February 1852.
13. "WAYS AND MEANS—FINANCIAL STATEMENT—ADJOURNED DEBATE(FOURTH NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 16 December 1852.
14. "ARMY (CRIMEA)—THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR, AND CONDITION OF THE ARMY. ADJOURNED DEBATE.—(SECOND NIGHT.)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 29 January 1855.
15. "SECOND READING". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 19 February 1858. Retrieved 22 December 2019.
16. "DEBATE RESUMED. (THIRD NIGHT)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 10 June 1859. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
17. "MOTION FOR ADJOURNMENT". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 19 June 1866.
18. Was defeated on the Budget on 8 June 1885 and resigned the next day
19. Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 26 January 1886 and resigned on 28 January
20. Was defeated on the Government of Ireland Bill on 7 June 1886 and advised the Queen to dissolve Parliament, which she did on 26 June.
21. Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 11 August 1892 and resigned the same day
22. Was defeated on the Cordite Vote on 21 June 1895 and resigned that day
23. ^ Rogers, Simon (16 November 2012). "UK election historic turnouts since 1918 | News". theguardian.com. Retrieved 5 October 2013.
24. Met the Commons, but was defeated on an amendment to the Address on 21 January 1924 and resigned the next day
25. Katritses, Thomas. "British By-Elections in War-Time", American Political Science Review, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Jun., 1942), pp. 525-532.
26. Bate, Alex; Baker, Carl; Uberoi, Elise; Audickas, Lukas; Dempsey, Noel; Hawkins, Oliver; Cracknell, Richard; McInnes, Roderick; Rutherford, Tom; Apostolova, Vyara (29 January 2019). "General Election 2017: full results and analysis". House of Commons Library. UK Parliament.

v t e Elections and referendums in the United Kingdom
General elections	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 2017 2019 2024 Next
Local elections	1889 1890 1892 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899 1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 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 2016 2017 2018 2019 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025
European elections	1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019
Referendums	1975 2011 2016
See also Elections in England Northern Ireland Scotland Wales Great Britain

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• General elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom
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