List of MPs elected in the 1918 United Kingdom general election

1918–1922 Parliament of the United Kingdom
Dec 1910–1918 Parliament 1922–1923 Parliament
Overview
Legislative bodyParliament of the United Kingdom
Term14 December 1918 (1918-12-14) – 15 November 1922 (1922-11-15)
Election1918 United Kingdom general election
GovernmentLloyd George ministry
House of Commons
Members707
SpeakerJames Lowther (until 1921)
John Henry Whitley (from 1921)
LeaderBonar Law (until 1921)
Austen Chamberlain (from 1921)
Prime MinisterDavid Lloyd George
Leader of the OppositionSir Donald Maclean (until 1920)
H. H. Asquith (from 1920)
Third-party leaderÉamon de Valera or William Adamson
House of Lords
Lord ChancellorRobert Finlay, 1st Viscount Finlay (until 1919)
F. E. Smith, 1st Earl of Birkenhead (from 1919)
Leader of the House of LordsGeorge Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston

This is a list of members of Parliament (MPs) elected in the 1918 general election. This Parliament was elected on 14 December 1918, assembled on 4 February 1919 and was dissolved on 26 October 1922.

The normal polling day did not apply to the university constituencies (polls open for five days) and Orkney and Shetland (poll open two days). Votes in the territorial constituencies were not counted until 28 December 1918 to allow time for postal votes from members of the armed forces to arrive.

Coalition and Non-Coalition: In most constituencies in Great Britain one supporter of the coalition government, led by David Lloyd George (the Liberal Prime Minister) and Bonar Law (the Conservative leader), was issued the so-called coupon. Candidates elected as Liberals or Conservatives, without the coupon, were not necessarily hostile to the government. This list follows the label used in F.W.S. Craig's book cited below. No attempt is made to indicate changes between the Coalition and Non-Coalition wings of a party. Few coupons were issued to Irish candidates, so none are designated as Coalition MPs.

Conservative and Unionist MPs: Conservative, Irish Unionist, Labour Unionist and Ulster Unionist MPs constituted a single party in Parliament. Candidates of the Ulster Unionist Council are classified as Irish Unionists until May 1921 and Ulster Unionists thereafter. The only Unionists, in this Parliament, not to be from Ulster constituencies represented Dublin Rathmines and Dublin University.

The Parliament of 1918–22 had a poor reputation with contemporaries: John Maynard Keynes' "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" includes a famous remark about the Conservative MPs that "They are a lot of hard-faced men, who look as if they had done very well out of the war" which Keynes attributed to a Conservative friend.[1] Keynes privately confirmed that the friend who originated the remark was Stanley Baldwin.[2]

  1. ^ John Maynard Keynes, C.B., "The Economic Consequences of the Peace", Macmillan, 1919, p. 133.
  2. ^ Philip Williamson, Edward Baldwin, "Baldwin papers: A conservative statesman 1908–1947", Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 40.

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