1831 United Kingdom general election

1831 United Kingdom general election
← outgoing members elected members →
All 658 seats in the House of Commons ; 330 seats needed for a majority
Registered	about 516,000 (out of a population of 24,000,000)
	Results of the general election
	Composition of the House of Commons after the general election
Prime Minister before election; Earl Grey ; Whig	Prime Minister after election; Earl Grey ; Whig

Last updated January 23, 2025

The 1831 United Kingdom general election was held on 28 April 1831 to 1 June 1831, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. It saw a landslide win by supporters of electoral reform, which was the major election issue. As a result, it was the last unreformed election, as the following Parliament ensured the passage of the Reform Act 1832. Polling was held from 28 April to 1 June 1831. The Whigs won a majority of 136 over the Tories, which was as near to a landslide as the unreformed electoral system could deliver. As the Government obtained a dissolution of Parliament once the new electoral system had been enacted, the resulting Parliament was a short one and there was another election the following year. The election was the first since 1715 to see a victory by a party previously in minority.

Political situation

The ninth UK Parliament elected in 1830 lacked a stable Commons majority for the Tory government of the Duke of Wellington: the best estimate is that it had 310 supporters, 225 opponents and 121 doubtful.^[2] After a series of defeats, on 15 November 1830 Henry Parnell's motion for an inquiry into the civil list was carried by 233 to 204; this defeat surprised Wellington and his cabinet and forced their resignation. Wellington went into opposition, with Sir Robert Peel as the Tory Leader of the Opposition in the Commons. A Whig government under Earl Grey was appointed on 22 November 1830, the first since the Ministry of all the Talents in 1806–07. The government's Leader of the House of Commons was Viscount Althorp, who also served as Chancellor of the Exchequer.^{[ citation needed ]}

Grey was determined to bring in reform to the traditional electoral system, which had been discussed for many decades. With aristocratic colleagues he produced a surprisingly bold scheme of reform; the second reading of the Reform Bill was carried by only one vote (302–301) on 22 March 1831. The Tory opposition was determined to stop the scheme going ahead, and when the Bill went into committee on 18 April, General Gascoyne moved an amendment which required that the total number of MPs representing England and Wales ought not to be reduced. This proposal was a skilfully drafted 'wrecking amendment' and when it was passed by 299–291 on 19 April, the Grey government knew it would not get its legislation. In truth Grey had been ready to ask for a dissolution immediately when the Committee stage began, and King William IV reluctantly agreed; the King dissolved Parliament in person (amid a great political tumult) on 22 April.^[3]

The new Parliament was summoned to meet on 14 June 1831, for a maximum seven-year term from that date.^{[ citation needed ]}

Dates of election

At this period there was not one election day. After receiving a writ (a royal command) for the election to be held, the local returning officer fixed the election timetable for the particular constituency or constituencies he was concerned with. Polling in seats with contested elections could continue for many days.

The general election took place between the first contest on 28 April and the last contest on 1 June 1831.

Summary of the constituencies

Monmouthshire (1 County constituency with 2 MPs and one single member Borough constituency) is included in Wales in these tables. Sources for this period may include the county in England.^{[ citation needed ]}

Table 1: Constituencies and MPs, by type and country

Country	BC	CC	UC	Total C	BMP	CMP	UMP	Total MPs
England	201	39	2	242	402	80	4	486
Wales	13	13	0	26	13	14	0	27
Scotland	15	30	0	45	15	30	0	45
Ireland	33	32	1	66	35	64	1	100
Total	262	114	3	379	465	178	5	658

Table 2: Number of seats per constituency, by type and country

Country	BCx1	BCx2	BCx4	CCx1	CCx2	CCx4	UCx1	UCx2	Total C
England	4	195	2	0	38	1	0	2	242
Wales	13	0	0	12	1	0	0	0	26
Scotland	15	0	0	30	0	0	0	0	45
Ireland	31	2	0	0	32	0	1	0	66
Total	63	197	2	42	71	1	1	2	379

Related Research Articles

The Representation of the People Act 1832 was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced major changes to the electoral system of England and Wales. It reapportioned constituencies to address the unequal distribution of seats and expanded franchise by broadening and standardising the property qualifications to vote.

The 1832 United Kingdom general election was held on 8 December 1832 to 8 January 1833, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was the first held in the Reformed House of Commons following the Reform Act, which introduced significant changes to the electoral system.

The 1830 United Kingdom general election was held on 29 July 1830 to 1 September 1830 to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. Triggered by the death of King George IV, it produced the first parliament of the reign of his successor, King William IV. Fought in the aftermath of the Swing Riots, it saw electoral reform become a major election issue. Polling took place in July and August and the Tories won a plurality over the Whigs, but division among Tory MPs allowed Earl Grey to form an effective government and take the question of electoral reform to the country the following year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1826 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1826 United Kingdom general election was the 7th general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held on 7 June 1826 to 12 July 1826, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. It saw the Tories under the Earl of Liverpool win a landslide victory over the Whigs. In Ireland, liberal Protestant candidates favouring Catholic emancipation, backed by the Catholic Association, achieved significant gains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1820 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1820 United Kingdom general election was held on 6 March 1820 to 14 April 1820, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament. Triggered by the death of King George III, it produced the first parliament of the reign of his successor, King George IV. It was held shortly after the Radical War in Scotland and the Cato Street Conspiracy. In this atmosphere, the Tories under the Earl of Liverpool were able to win a substantial majority over the Whigs.

The 1818 United Kingdom general election was the 5th general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held on 17 June 1818 to 18 July 1818. It saw the Whigs gain a few seats, but the Tories under the Earl of Liverpool retained a majority of around 90 seats. The Whigs were divided over their response to growing social unrest and the introduction of the Corn Laws.

The 1802 United Kingdom general election was the first general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held from 5 July 1802 to 28 August 1802, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of the new Parliament of the United Kingdom. The first Parliament had been composed of members of the former Parliaments of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland.

The 1806 United Kingdom general election was the second general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held from 29 October 1806 to 17 December 1806, to elect members of the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1807 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1807 United Kingdom general election was the third general election after the Acts of Union 1800, held from 4 May 1807 to 9 June 1807.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1812 United Kingdom general election</span>

The 1812 United Kingdom general election was the fourth general election after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland, held on 5 October 1812 to 10 November 1812, taking place at the height of the Napoleonic Wars.

Bedfordshire was a United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of England from 1295 until 1707, then the House of Commons of Great Britain until 1801 and the House of Commons of the United Kingdom until 1885 when it was divided into two constituencies under the Redistribution of Seats Act 1885.

Derbyshire is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Knights of the Shire.

In the first Parliament to be held after the Union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801, the first House of Commons of the United Kingdom was composed of all 558 members of the former Parliament of Great Britain and 100 of the members of the House of Commons of Ireland.

The 1796 British general election returned members to serve in the 18th and last House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain. They were summoned before the Union of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 January 1801. The members in office in Great Britain at the end of 1800 continued to serve in the first Parliament of the United Kingdom (1801–02).

The 1790 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 17th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707.

The 1761 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 12th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. This was the first Parliament chosen after the accession to the throne of King George III. It was also the first election after George III had lifted the conventional proscription on the employment of Tories in government. The King prevented the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, from using public money to fund the election of Whig candidates, but Newcastle instead simply used his private fortune to ensure that his ministry gained a comfortable majority.

The 1710 British general election produced a landslide victory for the Tories. The election came in the wake of the prosecution of Henry Sacheverell, which had led to the collapse of the previous government led by Godolphin and the Whig Junto.

The 1708 British general election was the first general election to be held after the Acts of Union had united the Parliaments of England and Scotland.

The Ultra-Tories were an Anglican faction of British and Irish politics that appeared in the 1820s in opposition to Catholic emancipation. The faction was later called the "extreme right-wing" of British and Irish politics.

William Blair was a Scottish landowner and Tory politician. He was the Laird of Blair in Ayrshire in Scotland from 1782 to 1841. He was also the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Ayrshire constituency from 1829 to 32.

References

↑ "Elections and the electorate in the Eighteenth Century". The Age of George III. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
↑ D.R. Fisher, History of Parliament 1820–1832, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2009, p. 349.
↑ D.R. Fisher, History of Parliament 1820–1832, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2009, p. 351–360 passim.

Sources

British Electoral Facts 1832–1999, compiled and edited by Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher (Ashgate Publishing Ltd 2000). Source: Dates of Elections – Footnote to Table 5.02
British Historical Facts 1760–1830, by Chris Cook and John Stevenson (The Macmillan Press 1980). Source: Types of constituencies – Great Britain
His Majesty's Opposition 1714–1830, by Archibald S. Foord (Oxford University Press 1964)
Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland 1801–1922, edited by B.M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978). Source: Types of constituencies – Ireland

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Age_of_George_III-1] "Elections and the electorate in the Eighteenth Century". The Age of George III. Retrieved 28 January 2023.

[1830_Parliament_partisan-2] D.R. Fisher, History of Parliament 1820–1832, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2009, p. 349.

[Story_of_the_1830_Parliament-3] D.R. Fisher, History of Parliament 1820–1832, vol. 1, Cambridge University Press 2009, p. 351–360 passim.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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