December 1910 United Kingdom general election

The December 1910 United Kingdom general election was held from 3 to 19 December. It was the last general election to be held over several days[1] and the last to be held prior to the First World War (1914–18).

December 1910 United Kingdom general election
3–19 December 1910 (1910-12-03 – 1910-12-19)
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 274 seats, 43.5% 272 seats, 46.8%
Seats won 272 271
Seat change 2 1
Popular vote 2,157,256 2,270,753
Percentage 44.2% 46.6%
Swing 0.7% 0.3%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader John Redmond George Barnes
Party Irish Parliamentary Labour
Leader since 6 February 1900 14 February 1910
Leader's seat Waterford City Glasgow Blackfriars & Hutchesontown
Last election 71 seats, 1.2% 40 seats, 7.0%
Seats won 74 42
Seat change 3 2
Popular vote 90,416 309,963
Percentage 1.9% 6.4%
Swing 0.7% 0.6%
Colours denote the winning party
Prime Minister before election

H. H. Asquith
Liberal

 Prime Minister after election

H. H. Asquith
Liberal

The political context was the effort of the new Liberal government to pass its budget, with higher taxes on the wealthy. It was blocked by the House of Lords. The Government called an election to get a mandate for the Parliament Act 1911, which would prevent the House of Lords from permanently blocking legislation.[2] After the Liberals, together with the Irish Nationalists and Labour, retained their Commons majority, the House of Lords gave way and the budget was passed.

The Conservatives, led by Arthur Balfour with their Liberal Unionist allies, and the Liberals, led by H. H. Asquith, could not break the deadlock produced in the January general election, with the Conservatives again winning the largest number of votes. The Liberal Party under Asquith formed a government with the support of the Irish Nationalists. This was the last election in which the Liberals won the highest number of seats in the House of Commons. It was also the last United Kingdom national election in which a party other than Labour or the Conservatives won the most seats until the 2014 European Parliament elections.

Results
England and Wales seat winners
↓ 
272 271 74 42 8 3
Liberal Conservative IPP Lab AFI O
UK General Election December 1910
Candidates Votes
Party Leader Stood Elected Gained Unseated Net % of total % No. Net %
  Conservative & Lib. Unionist Arthur Balfour 548 271 −1 40.4 46.6 2,270,753 −0.3
  Liberal H. H. Asquith 467 272 −2 40.6 44.2 2,157,256 +0.7
  Labour George Barnes 56 42 5 3 +2 6.3 6.4 309,963 −0.6
  Irish Parliamentary John Redmond 81 74 5 2 +3 11.0 1.9 90,416 +0.7
  All-for-Ireland William O'Brien 21 8 2 2 0 1.2 0.6 30,322 +0.2
  Social Democratic Federation H. M. Hyndman 2 0 0 0 0 0.1 5,733 −0.1
  Ind. Conservative N/A 4 1 1 1 0 0.1 0.1 4,647
  Independent Labour N/A 4 0 0 0 0 0.1 3,492
  Independent Liberal N/A 1 0 0 1 −1 0.0 1,946
  Scottish Prohibition Edwin Scrymgeour 1 0 0 0 0 0.0 913
  Independent Nationalist N/A 4 2 0 1 −1 0.3 0.0 911
  Independent N/A 2 0 0 0 0 0.0 57
Total votes cast: 4,876,409.[3]

Voting summary
Popular vote
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 46.57%
Liberal
 
 44.23%
Labour
 
 6.36%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 1.85%
Independent
 
 0.23%
Others
 
 0.78%

Seats summary
Parliamentary seats
Liberal
 
 40.6%
Conservative and Liberal Unionist
 
 40.5%
Labour
 
 6.3%
Irish Parliamentary
 
 11.0%
All-for-Ireland
 
 1.2%
Independent
 
 0.5%
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See also

References
  1. "General Election Dates 1832–2005" (PDF), parliament.uk
  2. Somervell, D. C. (1936), The Reign of King George V
  3. All parties shown.

Further reading
  • Blewett, Neal (1972), Peers, the Parties and the People: General Elections of 1910
  • Craig, F. W. S. (1989), British Electoral Facts: 1832–1987, Dartmouth: Gower, ISBN 0900178302
  • Pelling, Henry (1967), Social Geography of British Elections 1885–1910

Manifestos
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