1935 United Kingdom general election

1935 United Kingdom general election

←  1931 14 November 1935 1945  →
←  outgoing members elected members  →
All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.1%, 5.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Clement Attlee John Simon Party Conservative Labour National Liberal Alliance National Government National Government Leader since 23 May 1923 25 October 1935 5 October 1931 Leader's seat Bewdley Limehouse Spen Valley Last election 470 seats, 55% 52 seats, 30.8% 35 seats, 3.7% Seats won 386 [note 1] 154 33 Seat change 86 102 2 Popular vote 10,025,083 7,984,988 784,608 Percentage 47.8% 38.0% 3.7% Swing 7.2% 7.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Herbert Samuel Ramsay MacDonald James Maxton Party Liberal National Labour Ind. Labour Party Alliance National Government Leader since 1931 24 August 1931 1934 Leader's seat Darwen (defeated) Seaham (defeated) Glasgow Bridgeton Last election 33 seats, 6.5% 13 seats, 1.5% Part of Labour Seats won 21 8 4 Seat change 12 5 4 Popular vote 1,414,010 321,028 136,208 Percentage 6.7% 1.5% 0.7% Swing 0.2% New party
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Prime Minister before election Stanley Baldwin National Prime Minister after election Stanley Baldwin National

The 1935 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 14 November, and resulted in a large, albeit reduced, majority for the National Government now led by Stanley Baldwin of the Conservative Party. The greatest number of members, as before, were Conservatives, while the National Liberal vote held steady. The much smaller National Labour vote also held steady but the resurgence in the main Labour vote caused over a third of their MPs, including National Labour leader (and former Prime Minister) Ramsay MacDonald, to lose their seats. It was the last election in which a party or alliance won a majority of the votes cast.

Labour, under what was then regarded internally as the caretaker leadership of Clement Attlee following the resignation of George Lansbury slightly over a month before, made large gains over their very poor showing at the 1931 general election, and saw their highest share of the vote yet. They made a net gain of over a hundred seats, thus reversing much of the ground lost in 1931. The Liberals, who had split from the National Government, continued a slow political decline, with their leader, Sir Herbert Samuel, losing his seat.

The Independent Labour Party stood entirely separately from Labour for the first time since 1895, having stood candidates unendorsed by Labour at the 1931 general election and having disaffiliated fully from Labour in 1932. The Scottish National Party contested their first general election, and the Communist Party gained the West Fife seat, their first in ten years. Major election issues were stubborn unemployment and the role of the League of Nations, particularly regarding the Empire of Japan. Parliament was dissolved on 25 October. ^[1]

No general elections were held during the Second World War until Allied victory was assured via acts of Parliament; hence the 1935 House sat until 1945. This parliament would see two leadership changes. Neville Chamberlain took over from Stanley Baldwin as Prime Minister and Tory Leader in 1937. He in turn resigned in 1940 in favour of Winston Churchill, who led the three main parties in Parliament in government for the war.

This was the last election to be held during the reign of George V, who died two months after the election.

Results

UK General Election 1935

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
National Government
	Conservative	Stanley Baldwin	515	387	5	88	−83	62.9	47.8	10,025,083	−7.2
	National Liberal	John Simon	44	33	5	7	−2	5.4	3.7	784,608	0.0
	National Labour	Ramsay MacDonald	20	8	1	6	−5	1.3	1.5	321,028	0.0
	National	N/A	4	1	1	4	−3	0.2	0.3	53,189	−0.2
	National Government (total)	Stanley Baldwin	583	429	12	139	−125	69.8	51.8	11,183,908	−15.4
Opposition
	Labour	Clement Attlee	552	154	105	3	+102	25.0	38.0	7,984,988	+7.4
	Liberal	Herbert Samuel	161	21	3	15	−12	3.4	6.7	1,414,010	−0.3
	Ind. Labour Party	James Maxton	17	4	4	0	+4	0.7	0.7	136,208	N/A
	Independent Liberals (UK, 1931)	David Lloyd George	5 [2]	4	0	0	0	0.7	0.3	67,653	−0.2
	Nationalist	Thomas J. Campbell	2	2	0	0	0	0.3	0.2	50,747	−0.1
	Independent Republican	N/A	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.2	46,715	N/A
	Independent National	N/A	2	2	0	0	0	0.3	0.2	33,527	N/A
	SNP	Alexander MacEwen	8	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.2	29,517	0.0
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	29,475	N/A
	Communist	Harry Pollitt	2	1	1	0	0	0.2	0.1	27,177	−0.2
	Independent	N/A	5	2	1	0	0	0.3	0.1		+0.1
	Independent Labour	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.1	14,867	0.0
	Liverpool Protestant	Harry Longbottom	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	6,677	0.0
	Independent Progressive	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	6,421	N/A
	Social Credit	John Hargrave	3	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	10,376	N/A
	Plaid Cymru	Saunders Lewis	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	2,534	0.0
	Agriculturalist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	1,771	N/A
	Christian Socialist	N/A	1	0	0	0	0	0.0	0.0	1,480	N/A

Total votes cast: 20,991,488. Turnout: 71.1%. ^[3]

All parties shown. Conservatives include the Ulster and Scottish Unionists.

Votes summary

Popular vote Conservative   47.76% Labour   38.04% Liberal   6.74% Liberal National   3.74% National Labour   1.53% Others   2.20%

Popular vote (as National Gov't) National Gov't   53.28% Labour   38.04% Liberal   6.74% Others   1.95%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Conservative   62.93% Labour   25.04% Liberal National   5.37% Liberal   3.41% National Labour   1.30% Others   1.95%

Parliamentary seats (as National Gov't) National Gov't   69.76% Labour   25.04% Liberal   3.41% Others   1.79%

Transfers of seats

• All comparisons are with the 1931 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 1935. Such circumstances are marked with a †.

To		From		No.	Seats
	Communist		Conservative	1	Fife West
	Ind. Labour Party			1	Camlachie
	Labour		Liberal	11	Edinburgh East, South Shields, Durham, Bethnal Green North-East†, Lambeth North†, Whitechapel and St Georges, Middlesbrough East, Dewsbury, Colne Valley, Wrexham, Carmarthen
			National Labour	6	Ilkeston, Seaham, Forest of Dean, Finsbury, Tottenham South, Bassetlaw
			National Liberal	7	Western Isles, Dunfermline Burghs, Bishop Auckland, Consett, Shoreditch, Barnsley, Burnley
			National Independent	2	Southwark Central, Burslem [lower-alpha 1]
			Conservative	79	Aberdeen North, Stirling and Falkirk, Clackmannan and Eastern Stirlingshire, Stirlingshire West, Kirkcaldy Burghs, Maryhill, Motherwell, Bothwell, Coatbridge, Springburn, Tradeston, Ayrshire South, Linlithgow, Whitehaven, Derbyshire North East, Chesterfield, Blaydon, Houghton-le-Spring, Jarrow, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield, East Ham S, Leyton West, Romford, Upton†, Bristol South, Kingston upon Hull Central, Kingston upon Hull East, Ashton-under-Lyne, Farnworth, Ardwick, Clayton, Gorton, Platting, Rochdale, Everton, West Toxteth, Newton, St Helens, Brigg, Battersea North, Camberwell North, Deptford, Hackney Central , Hackney South, Hammersmith North†, Islington South, Islington West, Rotherhithe, Southwark South East, Mile End, Willesden West, Edmonton, Tottenham North, Morpeth, Nottingham West, Cannock, Hanley, Kingswinford, Leek, Stoke, Wednesbury†, West Bromwich, Nuneaton, Shipley, Wakefield†, Sheffield Park, Rotherham†, Bradford Central, Keighley, Pontefract, Hillsborough, Attercliffe, Brightside, Penistone, Leeds South, Doncaster, Batley and Morley, Nelson and Colne
Labour gains:				105
	Liberal		Conservative	3	Cumberland North, Barnstaple, Berwick-upon-Tweed
	National Labour		Liberal	1	Leicester West
	National Liberal			1	Walsall*
			Conservative	2	Sunderland (one of two), Oldham (one of two)
National Liberal gains:				3
	National Independent		Conservative	1	Brecon and Radnor
	Conservative		Liberal	4	Orkney and Shetland, Banff, Bodmin, Darwen
			National Liberal	1	Flintshire [lower-alpha 2]
Conservative gains:				5

1. Sitting MP had defected to National Liberals.
2. Sitting MP had defected to Liberals.

Constituency results

These are available on the Political Science Resources Elections Database, a link to which is given below.

See also

• List of MPs elected in the 1935 United Kingdom general election
• 1935 United Kingdom general election in Northern Ireland

References

1. "Parliamentary Election Timetables" (PDF) (3rd ed.). House of Commons Library. 25 March 1997. Retrieved 3 July 2022.
2. Includes Percy McDougall, who was not formally endorsed by Lloyd George's group, but used the same Independent Liberal label while running in Manchester Rusholme
3. Tetteh, Edmund (1 February 2008). "Election Statistics: UK 1918–2007". parliament.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.

1. The seat and vote count figures for the Conservatives given here include the Speaker of the House of Commons

Further reading

• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN   0900178302
• Fry, Geoffrey K. (1991), "A Reconsideration of the British General Election of 1935 and the Electoral Revolution of 1945", History, 76 (246): 43–55, doi:10.1111/j.1468-229X.1991.tb01533.x
• Stannage, Tom (1980), Baldwin Thwarts the Opposition: The British General Election of 1935, London: Croom Helm, ISBN   0709903413

Manifestos

• 1935 Conservative manifesto
• 1935 Labour manifesto
• 1935 Liberal manifesto