1841 United Kingdom general election

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1841 United Kingdom general election

← 1837 29 June – 22 July 1841 (1841-06-29 – 1841-07-22) 1847 →
← outgoing members elected members →
All 658 seats in the House of Commons 330 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	63.5%[1] 593,445
First party Second party Third party   Leader Sir Robert Peel Viscount Melbourne Daniel O'Connell Party Conservative Whig Irish Repeal Leader since 19 December 1834 16 July 1834 15 April 1840 Leader's seat Tamworth House of Lords Dublin City (defeated) County Cork Last election 314 seats, 47.6% 344 seats, 52.4% Compact with Whigs Seats before 314 314 30 Seats won 367 271[a] 20 Seat change 53 43 10 Popular vote 306,314 273,902 12,537 Percentage 51.6% 46.2% 2.1% Swing 4.0 pp 6.2 pp Compact with Whigs
Colours denote the winning party
Composition of the Commons after the election
Prime Minister before election Viscount Melbourne Whig Prime Minister after election Sir Robert Peel Conservative

The 1841 United Kingdom general election was held between 29 June and 22 July 1841. Following increasing government defeats, the Conservatives under Sir Robert Peel won a decisive victory against the governing Whigs.^[2]

The Conservatives campaigned mainly on an 11-point programme modified from their previous electoral effort and designed by Peel, whilst the Whigs emphasised reforming the import duties on corn, replacing the existing sliding scale with a uniform rate. The Whig position lost them support amongst protectionists, and the Whigs saw heavy losses in constituencies like the West Riding, where aristocratic Whig families who held a strong tradition of unbroken representation in Parliament were rejected by the electorate.

O'Connell, who had been governing with the Whigs through a compact, felt the government's unpopularity rub off on him. His own party was shattered in the election. Barely a dozen Repealers retained their seats, and O'Connell himself lost in Dublin while his son was defeated in Carlow.^[3] The Chartists picked up only a few votes.

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