1931 United Kingdom general election

1931 United Kingdom general election

← 1929 27 October 1931 1935 →
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All 615 seats in the House of Commons 308 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	76.4%, 0.1%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Stanley Baldwin Arthur Henderson John Simon Party Conservative Labour National Liberal Alliance National National Leader since 23 May 1923 1 September 1931 5 October 1931 Leader's seat Bewdley Burnley (defeated) Spen Valley Last election 260 seats, 38.1% 287 seats, 37.1% Did not contest Seats won 470[note 1] 52 35 Seat change 210 235 35 Popular vote 11,377,022 6,339,306 761,705 Percentage 55.0% 30.6% 3.7% Swing 16.9% 6.5% New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Herbert Samuel Ramsay MacDonald David Lloyd George Party Liberal National Labour Independent Liberal Alliance National National Leader since October 1931 24 August 1931 1931 Leader's seat Darwen Seaham Caernarvon Boroughs Last election 59 seats, 23.6% Did not contest Did not contest Seats won 33 13 4 Seat change 26 13 4 Popular vote 1,346,571 316,741 106,106 Percentage 6.5% 1.5% 0.5% Swing 17.1% New party New party
Colours denote the winning party—as shown in § Results
Composition of the House of Commons after the 1931 General Election
Prime Minister before election Ramsay MacDonald Labour Prime Minister after election Ramsay MacDonald National

The 1931 United Kingdom general election was held on Tuesday 27 October 1931. It saw a landslide election victory for the National Government, a three-party coalition which had been formed two months previously after the collapse of the second Labour government, led by Ramsay MacDonald.^[1] Journalist Ivor Bulmer-Thomas described the result as "the most astonishing in the history of the British party system".^[2]

Unable to secure support from his own party for his preferred policy responses to the economic and social crises brought about by the Great Depression, MacDonald split from Labour to form a new national government in coalition with the Conservative Party, as well as a number of Liberals. MacDonald subsequently campaigned for a "Doctor's Mandate" to do whatever was necessary to fix the economy, running as the leader of a new party called National Labour within the coalition. Disagreement over whether to join the new government also resulted in the Liberal Party splitting into three separate factions, including one led by former Prime Minister David Lloyd George.

Collectively, the parties forming the National Government won 67% of the popular vote and 554 (90.1%) of 615 seats in the House of Commons. Although the bulk of the National Government's support came from the Conservative Party, which won 470 seats, MacDonald remained Prime Minister. The Labour Party suffered its greatest ever defeat—losing four-fifths of its seats, including the seat of leader Arthur Henderson—and became the official opposition with just 52 MPs. The election also confirmed the collapse of the Liberals as a significant force in British politics, which would last until the party's merger with the Social Democratic Party in the 1980s. The breakaway National Liberals, meanwhile, were eventually absorbed into the Conservatives in 1947.

It is the most recent election in which any single party (the Conservatives) received an absolute majority of the votes cast, and the last UK general election not to take place on a Thursday. It was also the last election until 1997 in which any party won more than 400 seats.

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