January 1910 United Kingdom general election

"February 1910 general election" redirects here. For the Finnish election, see Finnish parliamentary election, 1910.

January 10 United Kingdom general election

15 January – 10 February 1910 (1910-01-15 – 1910-02-10)
All 670 seats in the House of Commons 336 seats needed for a majority
First party Second party   Leader H. H. Asquith Arthur Balfour Party Liberal Conservative & Lib. Unionist Leader since 30 April 1908 11 June 1902 Leader's seat East Fife City of London Last election 397 seats, 48.9% 156 seats, 43.4% Seats won 274 272 Seat change 123 116 Popular vote 2,712,511 2,919,236 Percentage 43.5% 46.8% Swing 5.4% 3.4%   Third party Fourth party   Leader John Redmond Arthur Henderson Party Irish Parliamentary Labour Leader since 6 February 1900 22 January 1908 Leader's seat Waterford City Barnard Castle Last election 82 seats, 0.6% 29 seats, 4.8% Seats won 71 40 Seat change 11 11 Popular vote 74,047 435,770 Percentage 1.2% 7.0% Swing 0.6% 2.1%
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election H. H. Asquith Liberal Appointed Prime Minister H. H. Asquith Liberal

The January 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 15 January to 10 February 1910. The government called the election in the midst of a constitutional crisis caused by the rejection of the People's Budget by the Conservative-dominated House of Lords, in order to get a mandate to pass the budget.

The general election resulted in a hung parliament, with the Conservative Party led by Arthur Balfour and their Liberal Unionist allies receiving the largest number of votes, but the Liberals led by H. H. Asquith winning the largest number of seats, returning two more MPs than the Conservatives. Asquith formed a government with the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party, led by John Redmond. Another general election was soon held in December.

The Labour Party, led by Arthur Henderson, continued to gather momentum, going from 29 seats to 40.

1900 election MPs

1906 election MPs

Jan 1910 election MPs

Dec 1910 election MPs

1918 election MPs

Results

England and Wales seat winners

↓ 

274	272	71	40	8	5
Liberal	Conservative	IPP	Lab	AFI	O

UK General Election January 1910

All parties shown.

			Candidates						Votes
Party		Leader	Stood	Elected	Gained	Unseated	Net	% of total	%	No.	Net %
	Conservative & Lib. Unionist	Arthur Balfour	594	272	130	14	+116	40.6	46.8	2,919,236	+3.4
	Liberal	H. H. Asquith	511	274	12	135	−123	40.9	43.5	2,712,511	−5.4
	Labour	Arthur Henderson	78	40	17	6	+11	6.0	7.0	435,770	+2.1
	Irish Parliamentary	John Redmond	85	71	0	11	−11	10.6	1.2	74,047	+0.6
	All-for-Ireland	William O'Brien	10	8	8	0	+8	1.2	0.4	23,605
	Independent Nationalist	N/A	10	3	3	2	+2	0.5	0.3	16,533
	Social Democratic Federation	H. M. Hyndman	9	0	0	0	0		0.2	13,479	−0.1
	Ind. Conservative	N/A	4	1	1	1	0	0.1	0.2	11,772
	Free Trader	John Eldon Gorst	4	0	0	0	0		0.2	11,553
	Independent Labour	N/A	6	0	0	1	−1		0.2	9,936
	Independent Liberal	N/A	3	1	1	0	+1	0.1	0.1	5,237
	Scottish Prohibition	Edwin Scrymgeour	1	0	0	0	0		0.0	756

Voting summary

Popular vote Conservative and Liberal Unionist   46.8% Liberal   43.5% Labour   7.0% Irish Parliamentary   1.2% Independent   0.7% Others   0.8%

Seats summary

Parliamentary seats Liberal   40.9% Conservative and Liberal Unionist   40.6% Irish Parliamentary   10.6% Labour   6.0% All-for-Ireland   1.2% Independent   0.8%

See also

• MPs elected in the United Kingdom general election, January 1910
• Parliamentary franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918

References

• Blewett, Neal (1972), The Peers, the Parties and the People: The General Elections of 1910
• Clarke, P. F. (1975), "The electoral position of the Liberal and Labour parties, 1910–1914", English Historical Review, 90 (357): 828–836
• Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
• O'Brien, Phillips Payson (2010), "The 1910 Elections and the Primacy of Foreign Policy", in Mulligan, William; Simms, Brendan, The Primacy of Foreign Policy in British History, 1660–2000, Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 249–259
• Pelling, Henry (1967), Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910
• Sykes, Alan (1979), Tariff Reform in British Politics: 1903–1913, Oxford University Press
• Sykes, Alan (1975), "The Confederacy and the purge of the Unionist free traders, 1906–1910", Historical Journal, 18 (2): 349–366
• Wald, Kenneth D. (1978), "Class and the vote before the first world war" (PDF), British Journal of Political Science, 8 (4): 441–457

External links

• Spartacus: Political Parties and Election Results
• United Kingdom election results—summary results 1885–1979

Manifestos

• January 1910 Conservative manifesto
• January 1910 Labour manifesto
• January 1910 Liberal manifesto